Destiny Rewritten
by optoclaw
Summary: I was wondering through a cave system in Yellowstone National Park when I saw it. Whatever the blue glow was it was mesmerizing. As I got closer I could see that the light was coming from a jagged blue crystal within some kind of gold colored container with silver handles on it. When I touched it I was shocked and brought into some kind of strange room.
1. Chapter 1

Matrix

I was wondering through a cave system in Yellow Stone National Park when I saw it. Whatever the blue glow was it was mesmerizing. As I got closer I could see that the light was coming from a jagged blue crystal within some kind of gold colored container with silver handles on it. When I touched it I was shocked and brought into some kind of strange room.

"Who are you?" I swung around looking for the source of the deep baritone voice. Eventually my sight landed on a shadowy figure with humongous shoulder pads and a bulky body.

"Uh, my name is Alexis Summers but my friends call me Lexi." Along with that I am a brunette with blue eyes.

"Well hello Alexis, my name is Optimus Prime."

"Hi so, um, where are we?"

"We are within the Matrix of Leadership, a sacred relic of my people bestowed only upon those who are worthy to wield it, those with a strong conviction to do what is right. I was the last of the primes, the 14th in a lineage of 13. But if you are here then that must mean that the Matrix has chosen you to be its next wielder."

"How am I supposed to wield something three times my size?"

"The Matrix is a source of mystical power it will reconfigure itself to suit your needs, however you must hide it in order to keep those who wish to do evil from harming you and those you love."

"And how am I supposed to do that? Shove it under my bed?"

"You must carry it within you."

"Carry it within me?! Are you fucking mad?!" The shadow surrounding him started to lift and the first thing I saw was the strange symbol on his shoulder.

"The thirteen original primes who preceded me always carried the Matrix of Leadership within their chest," he continued to say as the shadow completely lifted to show a red and blue robot. To say that I was stunned was an understatement. "I know that it seems impossible for a human to carry a devise such as this one, but if you want to save your planet then you must do so. There is a great evil coming towards your planet one that I thought had been sealed away thousands of years ago."

"What are you?"

"I am a sentient autonomous robotic organism from the planet Cybertron. I was leader of a faction on our planet trying to save it from destruction. We were known as the Autobots and our enemies, the Decepticons. The combat was fierce and endured for century's, but in the end neither Autobot nor Decepticon was able to sees the eventual death of our planet, poisoned from the inside out due to our war. Both sides scattered to the stars hoping to find a suitable planet for our race to thrive upon once more. We eventually found this planet, Earth, and our war started up once more.

"My small team and I fought for years against the Decepticon threat and eventually they discovered the location of our original base resulting in my near death. However due to the quick thinking of one of my troops I was able to survive and lead them to victory against the Decepticons. While my medic Ratchet was captured he and a Decepticon scientist known as Shockwave were able to rebuild the device to revive our home world. But with the reactivation of our creator Primus his long time enemy Unicron soon awakened."

"So this Unicron guy is the bad guy?"

"That is correct. You also seem to be one of the few people to realize that I did not say unicorn. We had to fend him off and keep him from destroying our planet once more. I thought that if we were to trap him in the container used to hold the Allspark then we could defeat him once and for all. But in order to do this the Allspark would need a new vessel and it was thus that the lineage of primes ended for in order to return my race from the brink of extinction I had to join with the core of our planet, with the Allspark. So if the Matrix has returned to Earth then Unicron the Chaos Bringer has indeed broken free from his prison and has come looking for his old body. Everything will become clearer when you accept the Matrix as I once did, and if you do," he reached out his hand. "Then take my hand and except your destiny." I walked forward but hesitated.

"Are you sure I'm worthy?"

"Not everyone is destined for greatness, however not everyone is destined for normal either. I was once a data clerk named Orion Pax after all." Making up my mind I reached forward and took his hand. There was a sudden gust of wind that swept my hair back and a bright blinding flash of light before I was back in the cave. The first thing I noticed was that the Matrix was gone and that my chest felt different. Turning my flashlight toward my chest I saw the same symbol on it that was on Optimus' shoulder only smaller but practically impossible to hide. It also looked like a birth mark.

"Do you wish to see the Matrix?" I heard Optimus ask in my mind.

"Yes please, but how do I do that?" I said out loud.

"In order to accommodate for the Matrix being held within you your body has changed into that of a techno-organic. This means that you can now do things that will have been dubbed impossible when you were entirely human." He explained. "This includes life threatening stunts and battles seemingly being passed off with a wave of the proverbial hand. I still would suggest extreme caution when doing such however.

"Okay so how do I sneak a peek at the Matrix?"

"All Cybertronian system processes are thought controlled. Heat sensors, night vision, and motion tracking software can all be accessed through a main hub which can be turned on or off at will. Transformation and weapons activation as well as opening a subspace can be done by will alone. However I suggest that until you get acquainted with your new body that you use the selectable options in your HUD. Also when speaking to one of us past primes I suggest doing so within your mind. Someone may overhear you speaking to yourself in public or in private and believe that you have lost your mind."

"_I probably have_," I thought back. "_You said that the 13 original primes that proceeded you all carried the Matrix in their chest cavity, so what happened to my heart_?"

"It has been transformed into that of a spark. The spark to a Cybertronian is like that of a soul to humans. Not only is it that but it is also our 'heart' if you will. And since you now wield the Matrix all of your thoughts and experiences will be kept within for future wielders too look back upon."

"_Hold a second there, all of my thoughts including my more 'dirty' desires_?"

"If you are referring to perverted thinking, and perverted sights, then no they will not be kept within the Matrix. Not even we past primes will be able to see them during or after. Even I myself must admit that those thoughts have crossed my neural net more than once."

"_Neural net is your guy's version of a brain isn't it_?"

"That is correct."

"_Okay good, now it's time for me to see what changes my body has undergone_." Looking back down at my chest, shut up perverts, I concentrated for like a millisecond before blue lines appeared on my chest in the basic outline of the Matrix and opened up. One piece of it slid forwards and up over the insignia, another forward and to the right, the third forward and to the left, and what seemed to be a secondary hatch forward and down. Then the Matrix started to glow.

I was so severely shocked that I didn't move or blink for at least a minute. Then I slowly reached up to my chest and removed the Matrix. Looking over the alien object I couldn't help but marvel at the device that used to be at least 2-3 times my height. Now it was barely a third of the size of my shin and fit in my hands.

"Shocking yet wonderfully amazing isn't it?"

"_Yeah, it is_."

"Back on Cybertron if you were a prime then you were at the top of the political system."

"_Holy shit, I am basically the president_." After checking my watch I saw that a substantial amount of time had passed, to be specific, three hours. I closed... my chest and began to climb out of the cave. Surprisingly I was able to move quicker going out then I was going in even though going through it originally it was all decent. So of course I asked Optimus about it and he said that my muscles were now partly Cybertronian so they were basically super charged. Not only would I be able to climb something faster than normal but run faster and hit harder as well. Once out of the cave I saw that it was dusk which meant that the park would be closing very soon. Making sure I had everything and that I had remembered to put the Matrix back in... my chest compartment I returned home as quickly as possible. Optimus told me as much as he could on the way home about the legend of Primus, Unicron, and the Thirteen, the war for Cybertron, the now retired war lord Megatron, his old team and the many friends and comrades that he lost during the war.

I was surprised when I found out that there was a set of Decepticon seeker twins that he respected for their honor and loyalty to their cause, but mainly their honor. He told me about his mentor Alpha Trion who was also a member, as well as the one who lived the longest, of the Thirteen. Once home I asked Optimus if he would be able to see anything while I showed. He said no so I had him explain more about his race and their planet. Then he told me one of the most shocking things that I have ever heard in my life. Unicron was the core of my planet and the reason why humans and Cybertronians looked so much alike was because of this. Primus created the Thirteen then later created the Well of Allsparks where the mass of the Cybertronian race came from. They also reproduce like humans and rely upon that more than they do the well now. But the ultimate evil is still the core of my planet.

Optimus even had to enlist Megatron's help in defeating Unicron. Because of that he lost his memories for a short while but because he gave something called the key to Vector Sigma to this kid named Jack who went to Cybertron to go to Vector Sigma to get the Matrix which was stored there and reloaded it into Optimus who then beat Megatron to a pulp and forgot what happened to him during that period. Anyway I finished getting around and laid in bed for a couple of hours listening to Optimus tell me about his experiences. After a while he eventually started talking about each individual prime before him. To be honest it was kind of annoying that he was jumping around so much. But the last one he told me about was Solus Prime.

Considering how all of the primes he talked about were all male of course I would be thinking? 'Oh great another guy,' but I was surprised when I found out that Solus Prime wasn't a he but a she. Besides me she was the only female prime and she had this wicked hammer called the Forge of Solus Prime that she used to craft all of the weapons for all of the original primes. I even talked to her! I swear that we are so alike that we could be sisters. Eventually falling asleep from the excitement of the day I couldn't help but wonder when I woke up if it was all just a dream.

I stole a look down at my chest and saw a birthmark like Autobot insignia just barely clearing the top of my bed shirt.

"_Hey Optimus are you there_?" I said within my mind.

"I am here Alexis, is something the matter?" He sounded groggy but it was hard to tell with how well he could hide his emotions.

"_I thought I said my friends and family could call me __Lexi_."

"I was not aware that you were willing to call me a friend so soon after meeting me."

"_Well I guess that for once you were wron__g_._ But back to what I was going to ask, if I'm a human__,__Cybertronian__ techno-organic now does that mean that I can consume energon as well_?" There was a long silence before he answered.

"I believe it to be possible, but I would not recommend trying until we learn more about your body."

"_That would probably be a good idea to follow huh_?"

"Yes it would. Now I do believe today is a Monday. That would mean that you have school correct?"

"_Not when it's summer vacation_," I said back. "_Why do you think I was still asleep at noon_?"

"I was still asleep with you so I did not know."

"_Hey, didn't you say last night that in order to try to imprison Unicron you had to put the Allspark into the Matrix which in turn made it impossible to pass down to continue the legacy of the primes_?"

"Yes I did, however when Unicron escaped his prison Primus separated the Matrix from the Allspark and sent it to the most likely place for the next prime to be. That place just so happened to be your planet."

"_But the Matrix was hidden in a cave if Unicron only recently broke out then wouldn't that mean that the Matrix shouldn't have shown up yet_?"

"Most generally yes but the Chaos Bringer could have broken out thousands of years ago and has not made it here yet due to the massive distance between this planet and the galaxy in which I chose to hide his prison. Secondly he might be having problems traversing the vast distance due to him having transcended physical form. After all in order for him to get to Cybertron he had to revive Megatron and use him as a vessel."

"_So what you're saying is that because Unicron doesn't have a body he can't turn into a form that allows him to move faster through space or allows him to use some sort of space craft_?"

"That is correct. He might even need to rest for long periods of time do to him expending massive amounts of energy to move through the cosmos."

"_So he could still be quite a way's away, that's good. But I am going to need to get ready if I want to meet up with Clara in time_."

"What will you be doing?"

"_We made a little schedule the day before that I could go cave exploring yesterday and we would hangout today. Is it alright if I tell her about the Matrix? She is my best friend after all and I don't want to keep such a big secret from her_."

"I do not think that would be a wise decision."

"_But the major downfall of every super hero in any movie is the fact that they don't tell their best friends about their powers or the fact that they go out and catch criminals for a living. In the end their friends end up not wanting anything to do with them and stay as far away from the hero as best as they can_."

"That is only in movies, there are no real super heroes in real life except that of your military."

"You don't understand, I don't want to possibly lose the only friend I have," I spoke out loud not caring if anybody heard me. We were silent for a couple of minutes before he finally gave in and agreed to me telling her. I quickly hopped into the shower and got dressed. The doorbell rang just as I was putting on my shoes and when I opened it I saw Clara standing there. She is a brunette with blue eyes and slightly pasty white skin where as I am a bit more tanned.

"Hey girl how you doing?" She asked me as we both smiled. "You got a tattoo?" Noticing where she was looking I pulled her into my house and up to my room. At the moment I was the only one home thanks to me being an only child.

"Clara what I am about to tell you is freaky, cool, and awesome so don't freak out okay?"

"Is it E.T?"

"It's an E.T.D."

"A what?"

"An extraterrestrial device that is also a relic of great power." She was silent for a couple of seconds before just completely deadpanning the conversation.

"I don't believe you, and I was being sarcastic when I asked if it was E.T."

"I know but this is for real. Yesterday when I went cave diving I found a strange device that was at least twice my size and when I touched it something happened and I became something called a prime. It shrunk enough for me to carry it without a problem and also put this symbol on my chest. I'm not lying."

"Okay Lexi, if you aren't lying then show me this prime device." There were a few almost in audible clicks before my chest opened to show her the Matrix. I moved my shirt down a bit so that she could see it better and her eye's bugged out. She just stared at the Matrix for a little while before pinching herself, then slapping her cheek.

"This is real," She said as she looked back up at my face.

"And from what Optimus told me I am the first female prime since Solus Prime."

"Who and who?" I mentally asked Optimus if there was a way for him to explain and he told me to take the matrix out of my chest and present it to her. Doing as I was told I took the Matrix out of my chest and maneuvered it out through the bottom of my shirt closing my chest after. He then told me to have her touch it.

"Okay Clara, I am going to need you to put your hand on the Matrix and we will be pulled inside. Not physically but mentally like I was when I touched it for the first time. It might take while though so be wary." She hesitantly reached out to touch the Matrix and when she did its calm yet bright glow grew even brighter until we were no longer in my room but within the Matrix itself. At first Clara just spun in every direction before looking back at me getting a shrug in response.

"Hello Clara." She jumped at Optimus' baritone voice and turned to look at him "My name is Optimus Prime, 14th in a lineage of leaders known as primes," He said as the other thirteen walked up behind him. "Please allow me to tell you of our world and its past." There was no talking for a couple of seconds before I smacked her on the back of the head.

"The faster you let them talk the faster we can go hang out," I said as she glared at me before looking back to Optimus and sheepishly asking, "So, what's a prime?"


	2. Chapter 2

3ft Caliber

"Let me see if I have this right, you are a sentient robot from another planet that was some kind of super leader and the arch nemesis of your creator has broken free from his prison and is coming back here to get his old body which just so happens to be the planet itself. How the hellis that possible?"

"Such a thing is not unheard of," Alpha Trion began. "Our creator Primus is the core of Cybertron itself, or at least his spark is, whereas his body is the planet in which we thrived before the war and after. In short Primus is Cybertron just like Earth is Unicron. However the way in which our two planets were created are very much different."

"Alpha Trion is correct," Solus began. "Cybertron was created after Unicron was defeated and cast far away into the galaxy. Primus sealed himself within himself after transforming his body to better accommodate the support of new life. Unicron however drifted into this solar system collecting debris as he went and getting trapped in your Sun's gravitational pull. Eventually with time and gravitational force even more debris collected around the slumbering titan creating your planet itself."

"Isn't there someway to extract Uni-fags body out of our planet and still keep it in one piece?" Clara asked.

"It isn't that simple Clara. Unicron isn't in the Earth's core he is the Earth's core," I said trying to explain it to the best of my abilities.

"Our new sister is right," Vector Prime proclaimed. "Unicron has always been the planet's core and sadly must be. Attempting to extract him from your planet could very well cause massive amounts of destruction and bring forth the very calamities in which we are trying to prevent which would ultimately lead to your planet's demise as well as ours and more."

"So there is basically nothing we can do to stop this guy?"

"Oh there is something we can do we just need to think of it," I replied. "And who knows we may still have a few years until he gets here."

"Even if we still have time before the chaos bringer reaches this solar system, let alone this planet, it is still drastically limited," Optimus said. "If we are to come up with a plan to rid ourselves of the scourge of Unicron once and for all we must do so before he is able to reach his body. For now however you will be safe and can live your life to the fullest."

"We primes, past and present, will be able to sense when the chaos bringer is starting to get close," Prima said getting our attention. "And do not worry Lexi, we will teach you everything you need to know while you sleep and when you have time while your awake then you can practice with your real body." I smiled at him before Turnong back to Optimus who wanted my attention.

"There is one more thing you need to know. When inside to Matrix it will seem as if you are in a dream, hours here in the Matrix are mear minutes in the real world."

"But when we were in the caves yesterday it had been hours."

"That was from your decent into the cave. Time flies when your having fun as you humans would say."

"So the amount of time that past in the Matrix-"

"Was only a few seconds in the real world. The conversation we had within the Matrix yesterday may have been have felt as if it was a couple of minutes long but in truth was only seconds."

"Well that's good to know. Minutes here are seconds irl, hours here are minutes irl, and that means that days here are hours irl."

"So does that mean years here are days irl?" Clara asked.

"Could be, so have you told us everything that needed to be said?"

"Everything that we can think of at this moment," Optimus replied.

"Since you can do a lot of the stuff these guys can does that mean you're going to pull a Clark Kent?" Clara asked me.

"Who is Clark Kent?" Solus asked.

"Clark Kent is the real name to a movie/tv/cartoon super hero who's alter ego is Superman, also known as the man of steal. He is an alien that was sent to earth as a child because his home planet was dying and somehow the yellow Sun gives him the ability to fly, shoot lasers from his eyes, use x-ray vision, and have super speed. But like I said he's just a fictional charecter."

"Dang and I was already beginning to fantasize about him," she said with some sarcastic humor.

"Well if you are going to do so I suggest coming up with an alter ego," Prima began. "You could even come up with your own prime name and use it as your alias."

"That's a good idea although it's going to take me a while to come up with one," I said.

"Oh how about Zodiac Prime?" Clara suggested.

"That is a good name Clara but it's just not me. Maybe we clould give it to the next Prime?"

"It would be a great name to bestow upon the next prime," Optimus said. "Now I believe that you two want to have a girls day out. We can start on your training some other time Lexi, for now you should have fun with your friend." And with that said therebwas a major gust of wind that swept our hair back and forced us to close our eyes because of the uncomfortable feeling of them drying out. The next thing we know we're opening our eyes with our hands still on the Matrix. Clara removed her hands from it and I returned it to my chest cavity. Now I no longer felt empty inside.

"Okay, what should we do now?" She asked looking at me.

"We could always go out and get somthing to eat and go shopping. I saw these really awsome knives that I want to buy, but food first I'm freaking starving."

"You see, this is the reason why we're best friends. You aren't anything like those popular bitches in our school."

"Well I still do love to shop."

"But not for the things they do. When they try to watch their weight by eating salads you gorge yourself on McDonald's and when they go out looking for clothes you go out looking for toys and knives."

"Hey I may be a teenager but I still have the mind set of a child so playing with toys is still fun."

"And you are one of seven people who are subscribed to a guy named Optoclaw on YouTube."

"So? What's wrong with being subscribed to somebody who doesn't get a lot of traffic on his channle or views on his video?"

"The fact that he's practically insane. Have you not seen the way he acts on his Shoutouts and Rants videos? And he hasn't uploaded a new video in a little over a year."

"Actually he did a couple of days ago saying that because his old channel used his school email he made a new one. Although I haven't found the link to it yet."

"You know what, I'm done with this conversation it is getting us nowhere."

"Yeah, wait how did we go from the popular bitches to talking about a YouTube channel?"

"Don't know don't care let's go eat." After that we quickly left to go somewhere, we didn't even know where we were going. Eventually we decided to hit up Burger King. Ordering our meals and getting our drinks we sat down at a random table and waited for our order to come up.

"So what do the blades look like?" Clara asked. It took a couple of seconds to register that I had said something about them before leaving.

"One is a silver handled Smith's and Weston pocket knife with a black blade that also has silver running along the smooth edge. The handle has also been made toward if you turn the knife a certain way the handle turns the light around on it. It's very hard to explain I'll have to show it to you but the other one isn't really a knife."

"What do you mean?"

"I said that they were both knives so you wouldn't freak out. The other blade that I want is a Katana, a traditional Japanese sword."

"I know what a Katana is, what I want to know is why you're wanting to buy one."

"My parents promised to get it for me for Christmas but didn't. Hopefully it's still there."

"Christmas was months ago it's probably gone by now!"

"You'll be surprised how long it has been there. The clerk who I was talking to about it said it had been there since before he was five years before and before the oldest member who works there was hired 27 years before him."

"So that sword has been there a grand total of 32 years? Damn shit like that just doesn't happen."

"Here's another weird thing, everybody who admires the sword for its beauty doesn't buy it simply because they don't feel like they meet up with the swords standards. Half of the people said that they 'sensed' that there was more to the sword than meets the eye."

"Really? You expect me to believe this shit?"

"The guy I talked to about it also said that I am the first person to be actually drawn to the sword for more than just its looks. I wanted the sword because I felt as if it wanted me to have it and drew me to it. The guy even let me hold and un-sheath it. And now that I think about it I think there was an engraving on the bottom of the hilt as well that looks a bit like the Matrix. However it has been a while and as you know my memory isn't that great."

"So long story short you still want this sword?"

"Yes."

"How much is it?"

"A little over 200 dollars."

"200 dollars!? Are you mad?!"

"Hey I saved up the money I had from shovelling snow and cutting a few peoples lawns and I have well over 300 dollars."

"I still think it's a rip off."

"With how old it is and how much work goes into making one it actually isn't all that bad." I heard our order being called and decided that we would continue later. The best part about having a true best friend is that sometimes you don't need to say anything to enjoy each others company so we were silent all of the way to the store I saw the blades at. Grabbing a sales pearson first since both of the items I wanted were in a locked glass case I made my way to the Smith's and Weston. After getting the knife I made my way up front to the Katana. It was a very nice looking blade even when sheathed. The cloth rapping the handle was a dark blue whereas the sheath was a crimson red.

"Hey dude, did you miss me?" I asked the guy behind the counter.

"Yes I remember you, you're the only person that was willing to buy the sword. Unfortunately I can't remember your name."

"Same here, I guess it really is a good thing that you guys were name tags."

"I guess it is," he began. "So have you come here to ogle the sword some more?"

"Well Chad I actually came here today to buy it."

"Really, are you sure you have enough money to buy a 205 dollar sword?"

"Enough to by the sword and this shiny pocket knife," I said as I held up the Smith's and Weston.

"Hold on one second." Getting out a set of keys he opened the glass case behind him and removed the katana from the stand it was on and handed it to me. As soon as I touched it a familiar feeling washed over me, one of calmness and strength. The very same feeling I had when I touched the Matrix the very first time.

"It's even more beautiful then the last time I saw it," I gushed as I hugged the sheathed sword.

"Would you like me to ring you up here?" Chad asked.

"Sure, why not?" After he rung up the weapon I left the store skipping with glee and headed straight to my house.

"Lexi hold up! You're running to fast!"

"Oh sorry," I said before slowing down to a walk. "I forgot about being a techno-organic there for a little bit. But I finally got the sword that I have been wanting for months! You can't exactly believe that I won't go insane from happiness!"

"That's the problem though. You were skipping about as fast as you can run, or at least used to run."

"If you were having trouble keeping up with me then I was skipping faster than that. We have always had the same speed when it came to running remember?"

"Hey we haven't raced in like a year and a half lay off me for not remembering that. So what are we going to do once we get back to your house?"

"Well I plan on placing the sword in a place where it can easily be seen on some kind of stand. I might just need to build it though."

"Why would you need to build the stand when you have enough money to buy it?"

"Do you know how hard it would be to find a katana stand of any kind on the internet let alone a store of any kind?"

"Well no-"

"It is because of that reason exactly that I would rather buy the tools and materials needed to build the katana stand where I can display both the sword and the sheath in plane sight where everbody can see it."

"Hey girls look, it's the beasts in human skin." As soon as i heard that voice I knew we had somehow come across the path of the popular bitches from school.

"Hey Lexi did you hear that mosquito?"

"That was a mosquito? I thought it was one big ass fly, like a horse fly or something."

"You two beasts think you're so clever don't you?" The leader of the pack said as Clara and I finally looked their way. We didn't have a choice they were standing in between us and my house.

"So what do you and the bitch pack want from us today?" I asked in the sweetest voice that I could muster. On the inside however I was asking Optimus if there was any way to mame her with my new sword and not get caught. What I got in response was him telling me not to try anything.

"We came here to set things straight."

"What things, the chairs, tables, pictures, book shelves-"

"You know damn well what we mean! We know one of you two put paint and feather bombs in our lockers on the last day of school and we want pay back."

"Look bitch one-" Clara started to say before she was cut off.

"My name is Veronique and this is Natalie and Casey." Clara only gave her an uninterested look that said don't interrupt me again.

"Look bitch one we aren't the only ones that don't like you. We're just the only ones who expressed that opinion out loud. So why is it that you automatically thought that we were the ones to plant those bombs in your locker?"

"You weren't?"

"Oh no we were don't get us wrong but why did you automatically assume that we did even though you were right?"

"Because you had no problem ruining anything else of ours and on the last day of school you ruined a five hundred dollar outfit! One for each of us! So you owe each one of us five hundred dollars to buy a new out fit! Five hundred dollars each!" Before she even spoke I had told Optimus to pay attention to what she would say next and when she was done I said, "And that is the reason why everybody hates these three. They have plenty of money to replace those outfits easily but force people to by new ones for them whenever they think they were ruined when a pizza sauce stain can be easily removed."

"These three sound like Knockout," Optimus said with what sounded like a groan in his voice.

"Who's Knockout?"

"A very vain mech that goes off on someone if they scratch his paint job in the slightest." I returned a quick whoe before my mind refocused on the conversation. Through the entire conversation whith Optimus both Clara and I were staring dumbfounded at the bitch pack.

"I am highly surprised that you three even made it past preschool," I replied as Clara and I started to walk past them only for one of them to grab a hold of our arms and the other two to punch us in the face.

"Oh hell no," Clara whispered dangerously and started to go in for the kill. Unfortunately for her with my amped up reflexes I was able to grab her before she could. "If you three want to play with the big girls you better learn to fight like it you little bitches!"

"Clara stop!"

"Why should I?!"

"Because they physically assaulted us which gives us a reason to not fight back."

"What happened to you? You would usually be right there beating the hell out of them with me!"

"And if I did I wouldn't be able to stop myself from using the katana I just bought." At this those three dumb ass' finally took notice to the sheathed katana in my hands. "And besides, if somebody physically assaults you and you can prove it in a court of law we can surely win a a law suite."

"Which means?"

"We can be on equal terms with them for at least a little while. Besides since I'm a prime now I have to resort to violence only when all other options are exhausted," I said whispering the last part.

"Spoken like a true prime," I heard Solus say.

"I guess you're right. You three better get good lawyer's because we can prove you assaulted us."

"Really and how are you going to do that?"

"Because you hit us hard enough to cause bruising you dumb bitch."

"And I am a witness to the assault." We all turned to the new voice and I knew who it was as soon as I saw his face.

"Oh my god you're Optoclaw!" I exclaimed. The dirty blonde looked at me with disbelief in his eyes and a strange face. As I said he was a dirty blonde with blue eyes slightly tanned white skin and a fetish for camouflage cargo pants simply because they are better fitting and he can carry a crap ton of stuff in his pockets. His words not mine.

"You actually know who I am?"

"Yes, I'm one of the seven people that's subscribed to you. Well your original channel at least. But when the hell did you come all of the way out here to Idaho?"

"You da ho?" He asked with a joking grin.

"No she's the ho and so are the other two," Clara replied instantly.

"Do you know how long I have been wanting to say that?" He asked as an accomplished grin spread across his face.

"How long?" I asked.

"Three fucking years."

"Wow you're subscribed to a nobody with a YouTube account," Veronique said.

"Do you three have YouTube accounts?"

"Yes we do so what?"

"Do you upload videos?"

"Yeah why?"

"How many subscribers do you have?"

"30," Veronique said almost instantly.

"Now you see that is a lie. You have zero subscribers."

"And how would you know this if you have never seen my videos?"

"I can see it in your eyes. You either have no subscribers or you are lying about how many you have. Having multiple personality syndrome can have its perks sometimes (I don't actually have multiple personality syndrome in real life)."

"Wait you have MPS?" Clara asked.

"Yes I do, and there may very well be a dimension out there where I don't but then again who knows because we don't have the technology to go to other dimensions now do we?"

"So you would actually help these pathetically poor beasts?"

"I find it much more fun being a pathetically poor beast then a stuck up know it all rich girl that can't seem to get daddy's cock out of her ass. I however am not afraid to beat the holy living shit out of you, and if you try to gang up on me," lifting up his shirt a bit we all saw a Smith's and Weston knife exactly like the one I just bought clipped to his belt loop. "I am carrying three knives on my person that I will not hesitate to use. And quite frankly I find the taste of blood quite delightful. I'm guessing it is because of one of two alternate personalities aptly named Insanity. The other one on the other hand is aptly named Anger because he embodies anger itself. So if you really want to push on the restraints of my already short temper go ahead and keep pushing for that cloathing because I am not afraid to get physical." Un-clipping his knife from his belt loop and getting his hand ready to flip it open he gave them an insane stalker smile. What he said was true, it could be seen in his eyes that he wasn't afraid to mame anybody. He might not even be afraid to kill if it came down to it. But because I had become a prime I was able to sense something within him.

He wouldn't fight unless provoked. This young man would rather expend all other options before resorting to violence just like me, just like a prime.

Finally deciding to not anger us or him any more they left. However they threw a couple of glares in Clara and I's derection. We flipped them off as a response.

"So if the girl with a sword really is one of my subscribers then prove it."

"You have a series called shoutputs and rants."

"Tons of people do."

"One of the videos you did hyped up on Dr. Pepper."

"That could have happened to anyone." 'Crap he's got a great point,' I thought as I tried to remember what all he has done in his videos. I unfortunately didn't have all that great of a memory and it was really coming back to bite me in the ass right now.

"One time your dogs started to fight in the middle of a video."

"Again could happen to anybody." Now I was really starting to run out of memory. What did he do in one of his videos that I can remember! Wait a second, that's it!

"In the last video you did on your old channle the webcam crapped out on you twice and you ended up turning the video into a Minecraft let's Play tour of your main Skyblock map." He looked at me with some kind of strange look and it was killing me to hear what he had to say next.

"That, is absolutly correct. You must be one of the people that don't display their subscriptions unless you are one of the Jerrisrose guys." Thank god he believed me!

"I'm one of the people that do not display my subscriptions. I don't know why but I do."

"If you don't do something then shouldn't you say I don't know why but I don't?" That was a pretty good point and from what I know of Optoclaw he isn't all that good with coming up with good points.

"That is a very good point," Clara replied.

"Which direction?"

"Huh?"

"Which direction did you point in that was very good?"

"Really Optoclaw? Did you really have to ask that question?" I asked.

"Hey you watch my videos you should know how much of a dumbass I can be."

"You mean like you were in the last video you made on your old channel?"

"The derping webcam sure as hell didn't help either. And now the only videos I can make at the moment are Minecraft play throughs because of the fact that I don't have a webcam at the moment."

"Why is that?" Clara asked.

"Well the computer I was using at the time had an integrated webcam and ultimately was a giant piece of shit whereas the computer I am using now is far better in the fact that it is a desktop that wasn't some hand me down piece of shit. Now the only thing that wasn't brand new was the t.v. moniter that I'm using. That was originally used for our PlayStation 3 but is now being utilised with my computer."

"Well then what happened to your PS3?" I asked.

"It's in my room and doesn't really get used much. The reason why is because after a while you kind of get tired of playing videogames. By the way people are starting to stare at your Katana so you should probably head home and get that put away."

"Oh crap!" I yelled as I face palmed and began to 'jog' back home with Clara following close behind me. "It was nice to meet you Optoclaw!" I yelled over my shoulder.

"Have you not paid enough attention to my videos?! My name is Donnavon you should have picked that up from my many slip ups!" Oh right, I thought that was just a code name. Anyways by the time we had gotten back to my house my now super sensitive ears were picking up on the growling coming from Clara's stomach. It couldn't have been that long since we ate at burger king. We had only been out for aboit foir hours, which isn't long enough to for anybody to get that hungry.

"Clara, I can hear your stomach rumbling."

"To me it sounds and feels like a freaking earthquake."

"It hasn't been that long since we ate. Well, yes it has been four hours but we did stay at Burger King for an so it's been three hours since we last ate."

"Remember I expended more energy than you because I was having trouble just keeping up with you skipping. That and your half robot now! It is much easier for you to conserve energy."

"Good point, but if I use less energy over an extended period of time then I would need to eat more than usual in one setting so I could go without for longer periods of time."

"Stop going computer on me!"

"Geeze, sorry!" I said as I unsheathed the sword. The blade itself was either a light blue or turquoise in color with a black swirling design going down the length of the blade on both sides. The designs started out of the hilt and ended just before the tip of the blade by swirling in on itself.

"Okay, that is one cool sword," Clara said.

"I know right?"

"It is known as the Cyber Caliber," I heard Optimus say.

"Optimus says it's called the Cyber Caliber," as I said this Optimus said who weilded it and what it's powers were. "He also said that Vector Prime was the one who originally used it. The Cyber Caliber also has minor control over time."

"What do you mean minor control over time?"

"It can rewind time to like a ten minutes ago and change certain events before they happen. If you use it to rewind time to ten days ago you risk killing yourself from the strain of reversing time that far."

"So if you reversd time to a year ago it's pretty much guaranteed that your going to die. But what happens if you do that? Do you lose your memory of the event as well or does everyone but you forget?" I waited for a second so I could hear what Vector Prime was telling me.

"Vector Prime said that I would be the only one that would remember and if I reverse time to a point when I didn't have the Cyber Caliber then I would no longer have possession of it. But that depends how I reverse time."

"What does he mean by that?"

"I can reverse time to where I would be there physically or as a ghost like entity. If I do it to where I'm there physically I won't have the Cyber Caliber anymore and everyone besides me won't have their memories of the experiences before only a sense of dajavu. But if I do it to where I am a ghost lile entity I can bring an ass load of people with me and nobody will see us. But if they do it will only appear as if the building or land is haunted."

"Would they be able to hear us?"

"If we get right up next to them and whisper in their ear then yes. Otherwise they can't see us except for ghostly apparitions, they can't hear us unless we get close, and they wouldn't be able to feel us. If they were to touch us or we were to touch them they would feel a sudden cold chill."

"Oh! We could majorly fuck with ghost hunters and be back in time to watch their show!"

"Exactly, you see this is why we are best friends."

"I do not think that would be wise to do," Optimus said.

"Chill out big guy I'm a teenager I can't be serious all the time."

"What did he say?"

"Optimus was trying to tell me messing with the ghost hunters would be a bad idea."

"Hey your still very young and you don't have a war program to run. You can afford to be an idiot and have fun."

"It is true Optimus. Unlike the rest of us she was a Prime chosen before a conflict could happen. She will have a time to be serious later on when she begins her training, so let her have this time to have fun," Solus said.

"I guess you are correct. There is still quite a bit of time before Unicron reaches this planet. I just hope we can get her ready for this conflict long before it arrives"


	3. Chapter 3

Alter Ego

It had been a couple of days since our run in with the bitch pack and so far for the entire night for the last two days Optimus and the others have been training me in battle tactics, flanking maneuvers, stealth, you name we have covered it. I even learned that because I am only partially Cybertronian I can't transform completely. But I can transform my body into armor, at least on the outside, and I can transform my arms into blasters and swords. When they saw my weapons for the first time they said that they resembled Optimus' weapons from before his upgrade to a T. Vector Prime even taught me how to use the powers of the Cyber Caliber. It was so cool! And just to 'test' my control over the relic I brought Clara back in time with me as ghostly apparitions and majorly fucked with a group of ghost hunters. When we returned we made sure to flip to there channel and laughed at our own stupidity. Seriously who knew 'ghosts' could give a person a wedgie? Just to test my actual physical strength Clara and I went into the woods behind my house and I managed to pick up a boulder eight times my size with only minor strain on my enhanced muscles! I am seriously not kidding!

Then last night we came up with the craziest idea. There was a small rock cliff close to where that boulder was, although it was more like a small rock hill but you get my meaning. We could start mining out a little base of operations tomarrow. However we would need the equipment to do so. So during the day I asked my parents if Clara could stay the night and when they said yes we waited for them to fall asleep then snuck out. I activated my armor, which was mostly black with a slight navy blue shine to it with no head piece or helmet, and then my jet pack and we flew this old cave. From what Optimus said it was an old energon mine where he and the Autobots first encountered some guy called Prediking in his robot mode. Aparrently they had no idea that these Predicons had the ability to transform until that day. So Clara and I walked around for a few minutes with the big ass flashlight we brought with us and eventually found this giant hammer head. Solus started freaking out about it being broken and we had to enter the Matrix to help calm her down. Eventually we got her to come out of her panick attack.

"Okay Solus, now that your calmed down you can tell us why you were so broken up," I said.

"I was broken up because that was my special weapon that I used to craft all of our weapons. Now its broken."

"When I was about to join the Allspark my soldier, Smokescreen, used the forge to to bring me back from the dead and in the process upgraded my body and drained the forge of all its power," Optimus began. "When Ultra Magnus was combating Predaking he was using the drained forge as a weapon. Unfortunately it was destroyed in the process. I thought that since the forge was no longer whole, let alone full of the powers it once had, we could melt what was left down into your mining tools and used whats left to make a new forge for later use."

"My baby is still destroyed."

"Come on Solus cheer up," Clara began. "If we use the remains of the forge to create the tools we need then by technicality it isn't destroyed because it now has a new purpose."

"That and I will make sure to make a new forge before I even make the drills and whatnot that we're going to need." At my statement Solus smiled and stood up from her sulking position. Clara and I then left the Matrix and I flew us, as well as both pieces of the forge, back to my house. Before we even got within a mile I began to think. Looking down at my armor and faintly seeing the area of my chest where a sliver Autobot logo was sitting in its normal position as well as the faint navy blue shine to my armor I began to think of a new name that would fit me.

"What ya thinkin about?"Clara asked.

"My prime name, one that would fit with my armor and my personality."

"Zodiac Prime."

"Clara we have been over this, no. It just doesn't fit me at all."

"Alright fine." There was another moment of silence before the perfect name hit me.

"Midnight."

"No thats still two hours away."

"I wasn't speaking about the time, and its only an hour until midnight. But I was talking about my new name, Midnight Prime." There was silence for a few moments, both from Clara and the Primes. Then the Primes began too agree, and eventually Clara did as well.

"Your right it does fit you because when your scary you one mean daughter of a bitch."

"But were all the same age." I looked back at Clara to see a look of confusion before she realized I was refering to the bitch pack then she started to giggle a bit, as did some of the Primes. Once back to my house I arranged some boulders in such a way as to hide the pieces of the forge before we went inside to to get some sleep. Once morning hit forg, and we made sure my parents had left for work and other what not, we went to retrieve the forge to make the tools and a new forge. Solus managed to find a way to teach me how to make a forge, you know where everything is made by hand and fire and not a giant mystical hammer, so we could melt downt the forge to repurpose it. However I needed the materials to make it. So after a quick flight I went to the closest scrap yard that allowed people to take things withought paying and engineered a makeshift basket to carry the materials I needed.

Eventually after hours of melting materials and shaping them using tools from the time before blacksmithing emerged we made a forge that was powerful enough to melt the Forge of Solus Prime. Unfortunately my mother got home around that time so we had to quickly hide it behind the boulders. After we made sure my parents were asleep, again, we went out, got the forge and the Forge and flew far enough away to use the one made by me without waking anybody by the noise we were about to make. The first thing we did, just like I had promised, was make a new Forge of Solus Prime. Actually I think that it would be far more accurate to now call it the Forge of Midnight Prime. But I aint that much of an ass so I'll just keep refering to it as Solus' forge.

After remaking the forge and instilling it with the power of the Primes we set out to get more materials small enough to carry in our pockets. Thank god we only needed something as small as my fist. I also learned that when I instilled the powers of the Primes within the new Forge I accidently made it like the weapon of Prima, the Star Saber, where its abilities were essentially limitless. Anywho we got the new materials and with Solus' help we made some mining equipmment. Essentially she imagined the designs and made it toward I was able to understand them so I could forge them. Now it was around midnight... unintended pun now intended, so we had to hide the stuff and return to my house for the night. Once my parents were gone for work we got the mining equipment out and went to the rock cliff to mine out the main entrance.

After we made the whole leading all of the way down to what would be the main room and unintentionally finding a titanium deposite we began to work on an entrance for any vehicles we may have in the future. Once we had this stuff set up we began to refine the titanium into usable chunks of metal. First we lined the hallways with two layers of titanium with a sound proofing material between them before I began to make the door mechanisms for both entrances. When I was finished with that I made it where we lined the outer most pieces of the doors with rock that had natural looking cracks around the areas where the edges of the doors were.

The main human sized door was on the side of the path to my house and was hidden in a small niche in the rock. In the niche there is a hidden camera hidden by a one way piece of glass that looks like the surrounding rock. If it isn't Clara or I then the hidden key pad will not show itself. If it is us a small latch next to the door will open and the key pad will slide into view. Once one of us have inputted our own personalised pass code the door will open. The rock door will drop into the ground and then the door behind it will split down the center and moving into the wall on the left and right, just like the main entrance to Optimus' old base before it was destroyed. The vehicle door is essentially the same way but is large enough for a semi with a wind vain and trailer to enter with ample space on either side to fit another car between it and the wall. Also the vehicle door won't be opened via pass code. It will open when one of our (possible) future vehicles sends a unique code out to the door that causes it to open. Granted there is a rock on the wall with a hidden key pad behind it just in case the automated code isn't working. One need only unscrew the rock. Now that I think about it I still had one more thing to remedy, and that was to forge a helmet to protect my head and desquise my identity. I might as well fight some crime while I wait for the inevetable show down between Unicron and I. But at the moment Clara and I were sitting on the ground bored and tired out of hour minds. Granted we did do several days worth of work in just a few hours, but hey it was kind of fun. Now we just needed to finish the computer systems and hack our way into the criminal data base and the police radios.

"Hey Clara, now that we're done want to try out the door?" I questioned between pants.

"Sure, this way we can take care of any bugs in the system now so we don't have to worry over them later. But quick question, do we both have to put in our codes?"

"Now I programmed the system to open if we're both here at the same time, or if one of us is here and there is a guest with us, or if we're both here and there is a guest with us."

"Why do you think we will have a guest with us at some point?"

"Do you honestly think that as soon as I vigilante others won't vigilante?"

"...Good point, and if there are any nearby they may need a new base of operations, or a place to stay temporarily if they come to help on a case."

"Exactly. I'm not saying there will be more vigilantes or that they will be anywhere near here or helping me with a case of anykind, I'm just preparing for the future. You know all of the little what if's." She adopted her thinking face for a few seconds before she seemed to agree before we stood up to go into our new base of operations. Once the keypad showed itself I imput my code, the door opened, and we began our treck down the gentally sloping path that brought us down three stories to the main room that was big enough to have the entirety of team Prime walk around in it with plenty of elbow room. The walls were a shiney Mr. Clean white with a massive computer system on the wall directly across from the main door. It spanned most of the wall with a corridor on the far left leading to some storage rooms for the left over materials and equipment. There were also some Cybertronian sized barracks and human sized barracks with wash rooms for both nust in case. There was also an energon storage room for when we found some new deposits and a generator room that kept the place running. Granted it was just lights and a single massive computer at the moment so it didn't need to much fuel for now. Thank god for the small coal deposit the mining company in the next state over had. They may have rights to the land there but there's plenty of coal to go around. Besides, it's a suitable replacement for the awsomeness that is energon until we can actually get our hands on some. Anyway on to the rest of the main room. On the wall to the left of the door was a case that protruded from the wall slightly that was big enough to hold me inside. This was an armor 'stand.' Considering it didn't really stand the armor inside it, you lay the armor down inside and small protruding notches keep it from sliding to the bottom. To the left of that was a small case for me to place my helmet.

"Hey, Alexis. Why is there an armor case here if you can't remove your armor?"

"Oh, that's because it isn't for me. It's going to be for you."

"For me?"

"Yeah! Every badass super hero has had an equally badass sidekick or partner to back them up. Once I make you a set of armor and train you to use damn near all kinds of weapons we'll be the best damn team ever! Of all time!"

"Did you just make a Red vs Blue referance?"

"Yes I did but who gives a damn about that right now?! Do you want to be a superhero?!"

"Yes I do!" She yelled exitedly.

"Exactly, so what color do you want-"

"Although it would probably be better if I helped you out here for the time being until you get used to the whole new alter ego life and all."

"Good point, but I'm still going to make your armor now so we have some time to work out any bugs there may be in the design."

"Okay, fine by me. But I want it to be a sort of rust red color."

"Cool." It was right about then that I decided to finally hack into the system that held the entire criminal data base. So once I brought up a chair to the computer I began... typing... before I realised that I had no idea wht the hell I was doing.

"Hey Clara, do you by anychance know how to hack?"

"No, and you don't? I thought you had like a super brain now!"

"That only applies to when I need to calculate stuff! I don't know the move 'computer hack!'"

"Don't go quoting Pokemon in strange ways!"

"I'll do anything I want! Believe it!"

"Don't Naruto because nobody can Naruto like Naruto can!"

"Alright fine, I'll stop making referances. It's one of the few things I know how to do that doesn't progressively get harder the more I try and fail to understand.

"Bow chika bow wow."

"Oh you bitch."

"Eh, it was worth it."

"Who's the quoter now huh!"

"You are," she replied evenly with a straight face, knowing that it was going to piss me off even more.

"But you were just quoting Tucker from Red vs Blue! What's next, when I finally teach you how to fight are you going to shoot them in the ass just so you can pull off that joke?!" The look that crossed her face was like she just met god himself. Then it finally clicked.

"How did we go from screaming at each other about whether one of us knows how to hack or not?" Clara enquired as she adopted her confused face.

"I have no idea. Hey Optimus, do you or qny of the other Primes know how to hack into other systems?"

"I know how," he replied. "Although I fear I may be far more rusty at it now than I was when I needed to decript the Iacon data base so many years ago."

"Good enough," I replied in my head before I turned back towards the computer screen and began to work with Optimus' help. After several hours of making sure that nobody could back trace the signal I set up to go between the base and the local police station we now had access to every criminal record within the state of Idaho. I was about to suggest getting something to eat, but then I picked up a call from the police dispatcher about a bank robbery in progress. Unfortunately I couldn't go help until I made myself a helmet. So instead of saying I would make up for it later I quickly grabbed a sizable chunk of titanium and the Forge. After about a minute with Solus' quick, easy to follow instructions I now had a helmet directly connected to the computer system here at base dispatches radio signals. Then I left as quickly as I could, hitting the after-burners on my jet pack into overdrive.

Several minutes passed before I fanally spotted the robbers getaway car. It wasn't that hard to be honest. One I had a birds eye view, two I had the vehicles description and liscence plate number, and three there were about 20 police cruisers foowing them. Activating the blaster in my left arm I quickly calculated where they were going to end up next and shot. The front tire went out as they swerved off of the road and semi safely into a fire hidrant. Then one of the guys got out holding a gun to the head of a hostage nobody knew they had. I landed on the ground and sort of stared the man in the eyes. I was staring threw a digital visor with two glowing blue lights where my eyes would normally be that changed depending on my facial expression. There was also a plate covering my mouth with a voice synthesizer within it to desguise my voice.

"Alright bub, put the gun down because that isn't exactly the best way to pick up chicks," I told him with a synthesized female voice that sounded somewhat like Solus replacing my voice.

"You think this is a joke?!" The man screamed at me with the woman cying louder in fear. "Shut up whore!" Raising my still active blaster at the man I put on my best serious expresion. He only smirked and looked at me as if I was an idiot. I then quickly aimed above him and fired a single shot.

"You missed you stupid robotic bitch," he said confidently.

"One who said I was a robot, and two that is merely a matter of perspective." Not even a second after I said that did a flag pole come crashing down on his head, forcing him to release his hostage. Sprinting forward I went to knock his lights out when he grabbed the pole and began twirl, spin, and strike with it as if it was a real sword. So quite obviously he has been trained in the arts of sword play. Getting fed up with him constantly smacking me with the metal pole I activated the sword in my right hand and made an upward slash, instantly slicing the pole in half before I raised my bladster and aimed it at his head. He looked between me, the broken pole in his right hand, and my sword a couple of times before dropping what was left of his makeshift weapon, raising his hands in the air, and uttering the sentance, "You know I was just messing around with you right?"

"Sure you were, that's why you robbed a bank, threatened to kill a defenceless hostage and proceedsed to try qnd beat the crap out of my with a flag pole. Yeah and to top it all off I'm not really your enemy. I'm your best friend with benefits. Get your head out of your ass you donkey before I help you do the physically impossible." And with that I walked up to him, grabbed onto the back of his neck, and held one of his arms behind his back before leading him to an officer to be cuffed. I then went over to the recked van and pulled out his two unconscious accomplices.

"Excuse me it, I mean sir, I mean miss!" Someone yelled just as I was about to leave.

"Yes?" I questioned the reporter as he jogged up to me. "Is there anything you need?"

"Why did you do it?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Why did you help the police today? There are a great many things you could have been doing at this point in time so why help the police?"

"Because from what I saw and heard these guys weren't going to go down anytime soon. So naturally I came to help. Good thing to or they may have lost the hostage in the process."

"Are you aware that there are laws against the people taking the law into there own hands?"

"This may look like a high-tech suit of armor, and in a way that would be correct. However this armor is apart of me. I can't take it off as if it were a wet bikini that I used at the beach. I am what is known as a techno-organic. Even the weapons that I used, just like the armor, are integrated into my body. So you have no way of proving if I am a citizen of this country or if I am from another world altogether, but there is one thing that I can prove. Ic I have the time, and if the crime is severe enough, I will interervene only if I am needed." The reported seemed to try and digest what I said before finally asking one more question.

"May we know the name of the woman who went out of her way to save a grateful hostage despite not knowing of her involvement?"

"You may call me Midnight Prime."

"Strange for a young woman such as yourself."

"Hey, every superhero needs a badass name. Besides with they way my armor shines at night it fits." And with that I activated my jetpack, got a twos step running start and took off into the sky's. Luckily for me I don't show up on radar because of the stealth tech integrated into my body and the fact I can supress my energy signature. I flew a good two miles in the opposite direction of my house to throw them off before ducking into the closest forest and running the rest of the way home after flying a good four miles threw the forest. Once back at base I removed my helmet, punched in the code, and went in. After a quick rest and chat with Clara I decided to call it a night. Clara went back to her house and I locked up my helmet and proceeded to go to my house. Once I had eaten dinner I went directly to my room and face planted into my bed. Days of after hours work and heavy labor had finally caught up to me and once my head hit that pillow I was out like a light.


	4. Chapter 4

New Aquaintance, First Death

If there was one thing about being a superhero that I absolutely hate, it's the fact that they always make it look to god damn easy. Just in the past week I have had to stop eight midnight bank robberies and 17 near rape instances. The sad part was the near rape instances were all guys. Just don't ask. I am so tired from the lack of sleep I feel as if it's killing me! Seriously Hollywood fuck you guys! Stop making it look easy, 'cause it aint. But there has been someone helping me out, although I have yet to meet him. The reason why I know someone is helping me is because there have been a total of eight calls I have gone on only to find out the perps have already been caught and tied up. There was also a strange symbol painted on their chests. It looked like a dragons foot. Eh, who cares. Just takes the work load off of me a bit.

Any who, Clara and I were currently hanging out in our new base when a call came in from police dispatch. Apparently there were these terrorists that took over a small coffee shop the next town over and were theatening to blow the place sky high if they didn't get what they wanted. So I left to go deal with them after dawning my helmet and activating my armor. After a fifteen minute flight I finally found my way to the cafe which was surrounded by cop cars, a SWAT unit, and a shit ton of people. Walking up to the towns police chief I began my duties as Midnight Prime.

"So, what's going on?"

"We have about 8 terrorists in there with hostages. Current guess is anywhere between five and fifteen." I took a quick look at thhe building and activated my thermal vision.

"I'm detecting 29 heat signatures in the building and eight of those aren't friendly, so that leaves 21 hostages. What weapons are in their possession?"

"We currently believe that they each hold an AK-47 and at least one side arm," the SWAT commander said as he walked up to us. "My guess is that those side arms are of the pistol class. Any way for you to tell the difference?"

"Sadly no. I have very limited visionary abilities. In order for me to take these guys out I must have some way to get in there without being seen and free the hostages without them knowing."

"Haven't you been in this position before?" The police chief asked.

"In a way I have. However that was only ever one or two hostages at a time, not nearly two dozen." At this point I heard the sounds of another jet pack and looked up. Descending slowly from the sky was someone in a dirt brown set of armor. The helmet had a design where a dragon head seemed to swallow the persons head and the face mask was essentially a slab of metal with two red eyes. The gauntlets had silver claws on the finger tips and what looked like two miniguns acting as elbow spikes sitting on the outside or the arms rather than on the back. His boots seemed to be made entirely out of metal with minimal gaps in the armor for movement purposes just like the rest of the armor. However they did have a shoe piece made to look like that of a dragons foot with three large silver claws on each foot. The abdominal armor was silver as was the cloth beneath the armor and the jet packs wings looked like that of a dragons wings and folded up the same way as well. They had two massive swords strapped to their hips and what looked like a collapsed weapon hanging from the small of their back.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one who heard the call," what I guess was a he said, seeing as they had a male voice synthesizer (think of the voice as the voice used for the Shrouded Clan from rage). "So since there are two of us here now, let's see what all we can do."

"Your the guy that's been helping out and thinning out the workload aren't you."

"Quilty as charged. Now not to be rude but we got hostages in there that we need to get out. I can be extremely stealthy despite my armor. I suggest sending me in as an infiltraitor."

"And I am more of an up front and personal kind of gal. I would rather face my enemy face to face to take them down rather than sneaking in and taking them from behind."

"Take 'em from behind that's what I'm talking about, bow chika bow wow. And if any of them manage to escape out of the back door you can stick them with one of your swords."

"Ah swords, a womans best friend. Bow chika bow wow."

"_Oh god, I think we just found your future husband_," Clara said thru my comm. Link."

"Oh shut up Zodiac!" I snapped, completely unaware I had forgotten to deactivate the outward speakers on my helmet."

"Who the hell is Zodiac?" The new guy asked.

"At the moment she is essentially my version of Vic."

"_Except I aint as annoying_."

"You watch Red vs Blue?" He asked.

"Yes I do. Remember though, we still have a job to do. Now before we get on with that I am going to need your name Mr..."

"Draco, you may call me Draco for now. Or will of fire, that works to."

"Hmm Draco, how fitting. Now you and I are going to sneak to the back. I'll stand guard while you sneak in and suprise them. Remember to disarm them first, we don't want any accidents." Nodding his head yes we quickly made our way into the back of the cafe. He was right though. There were pads on the bottoms of his feet to minimize sound and the armor was worn tight enough to not clank around when he moved. However just as soon as I had opened the door to the back all noise from him automatically ceased and he seemed to move around as if he was an actual ghost. Slowly sneaking in myself, to make sure I made no noise, I soon came apon Draco. He had already knocked out three of the guards leaving at least five more to deal with. Silently creeping up on the next guard who had his back to me I jumped up, removed the gun from his hand, and used the pistol in his hip holster to forcibly remove the other terrorists of their weapons. Draco and I then proceeded to quickly subdue our quarry by knocking them out and tying their wrists with military grade rope. I must admit, we made a great team. While the police and SWAT officers were removing the terrorists and hostages from the building we stood back and savered our handy work.

"So, do you think they're going to try something like this again?" Draco asked me.

"Who knows with a terrorist group. For all we know these were the only eight members."

"Hmm, maybe. But it is always good to be sure, you know be cautious. Never let our guard down and all that shit. Something may just happen when we least expect it." I noticed a lady walm up to us and quickly turned towards her. She began to think us for the save when all of the sudden there was a gun shot and the next thing I know I'm staring at a blood splattered visor. As realization sunk in I watched as the young woman fell to the ground with a hole in the center of her forehead. And I froze. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I seemed to only be able to stand there and stare at the corpse that was just alive and thanking me moments before. I could faintly hear the Primes screaming in my head to try and get me to do something, but I couldn't, I just couldn't register anything right now. After what felt like hours of being trapped I side my own mind I felt somebody roughly shake me. Focussing back on reality I noticed the faceplate of my fellow vigilante staring into the digital eyes on my helmet. Despite his visor having the inability to express emotions thru digital eyes the glowing red lenses seemed to radiate worry. I then glanced back down at the corpse, then to the terrorist that lay on the ground, broken and bloody, then finally returning my gaze to Draco.

"He... he killed her. She wasn't even able to thank us properly." It then felt myself begin to panick so he quickly enveloped me in a hug. His hug was immensely comfortin, but my sense of failing my only duty still stood there.

"I feel the same way you do, sadly it had to happen this way. I don't meen to sound insensitive but this just drives my point home. We must stay vigilant at all times as soon as we dawn these suits. Just the slightest mistake could cost us our lives and even the lives of others. Still every time I see sights exactly like this or even just damn similar it disheartens me greatly. However I know I must train as hard as possible to make myself stronger so this will never happen again." He released me from the hug." Now what are yoy going to do? Are you going to hold the burden of not being able to save her? Or are you willing to forget the what if's in exchange for the ability to get stronger to protect more?" I nodded at his wise words before looking back at the young woman, bowing my head in a show of respect and grievence.

"What did you do to him anyway?" I asked referring to the terrorist that was now being loaded onto a stretcher.

"I broke all of his ribs, both arms and legs, and gave him quite a few fractured bones including a fractured pelvis."

"Damn, you really fucked him up."

"Believe me when I say I think that he deserves worse and I planned on doing worse to him. However the police chief and I came to an agreement. I get to majorly maime him and cause him pain and the terrorist lives to stand a court trial. Probably gonna give him the death penalty anyway, could've saved them alot of time and money by just letting me do it now."

"Well I would love to chat more but there are many things I wish to get done. And I need to wash the blood off of my armor." Nodding his understanding to me and doing the samething for the woman that I did, he quickly activeted his jet pack and took off. I soon followed. The formaly fifteen minute flight now took about an hour and a half. This was my first mission that ended in the loss of a life.

"Sadly we cannot save them all Midnight. I had to learn that lesson the hardway," Optimus told me.

"Still doesn't make it any less difficult to deal with."

"I did not say that it did. Mearly that it was a sad truth. After all I lost countless soldiers during the war for Cybertron. Allies, friends, family, everyone lost something during the great war and I was no different. We must not allow the death of that woman to plague your conscious. This is the life you chose when you excepted the matrix after all."

"I know I can't allow that to happen it's just... this is the first time I saw somebody die so brutily. A person I had just saved from death. It's just hard to deal with. I'm going to need some time to wrap my head around it if I don't want something like this to happen again."

"Just know that we are here for you sister," Solus reminded.

"Thanks Solus, but right now I just need a clear mind."

"We understand." I felt the other Primes recede into the Matrix and out of my mind. Then after some time had passed I found myself in front of the rock mound in which my base was located under. Landing and inputting the code to open the door I made my way down, not yet bothering to remove my helmet. Once I was within the main room I saw Clara standing there with a sponge and water bucket in hand.

"I left the comm on didn't I?" Her only response was lifting the bucket and sponge and giving me her 'ya think?' face. Is stood there for the next twenty minutes letting her clean the dried blood from my armor.

"So you think you'll be able to keep up with this secret life of yours?" She asked.

"Yes I will keep up with my vigilante efforts," I said as I removed my helmet. "It's just a matter that my pride was hurt when that woman was killed. I thought I had saved everybody, but I guesss it wasn't meant to be."

"At least that terrorist got what was coming for him when Draco got ahold of him." She handed me the sponge so that I could clean my helmet. She then brought the other chair over from where it was stationed at one of the other keyboards. After I got my chair she switched to a news channel that was displaying what happened. I didn't really pay much attention to it as I was busy cleaning my helmet, but I did hear what was being said. In short the reporters were wanting to know if Draco and I were still trustworthy after they themselves saw the news bulletin showing what Draco did to the terrorist that shot that woman. The two officers that were there and saw what happened said that we were still completely trustworthy and that Draco merely acted out of anger, a sentiment they wished they could share and act apon.

When the reporters asked why I had just stood there they commented saying this may have been the first time I saw somebody die like that, which was completely true. There was also one reporter that asked where our base of operations were. '_There's a reason why they're called secret bases dumbass_.' I thought bitterly. The officers mearly gave the guy a stare, essentially asking if he was retarded or something. After sometime, like three seconds, we switched off of the news channel and sat in silence. Once I was sure there was no more blood on both my body and my helmet I put the helmet on its stand but kept it unlocked and my armor activated, you know just in case. Several minutes passed by before I got fed up and began to play minecraft. I got onto a server with Clara and we began to build ourselves a small house in the side of a cliff. If there was one thing Opt- I mean Donnavon and I had in common it was the fact that we strangely loved building things underwater and underground. However we seemed to accidentally dig into sombody elses house. One of their storage rooms to be precise. And since this was a modded server Donnavon himself set up(something I wish I truly had) there was a massive reactor filled with the most powerfull coolent one could get their hands on. There's was also a drive bay and computer terminal down here. So we went up a level and found a set of pulverizers and furnaces. Exiting that room we came out to a small hallway with a button on the wall and a massive room with nothing but two beds siiting next to each other against the wall. The floor was made out of blocks of ruby, the walls blocks of sapphires, and the ceiling was either periodite or emerald. I couldn't tell. We walked outside and to the left just to find a massive hole. In the 2 by 2 chunk hole there was a person using a hammer from tinkers construct to mine three layers at once. I couldn't see their skin from so far away so I didn't know who they were. Just when we were about to leave the person saw us and flew up using his jet pack.

He had what looked like an enchanted ruby sword and enchanted diamond armor with the chest plate missing because of the jet pack. The guy seemed to signal if we were friendly or not so we signaled back. That was when I recognised the skin and the username. We just met the admin himself!... Which I guess we already did but who cares!

"Oh my god," I whispered in disbelief

"What? What is it?" Clara asked me.

"We just met Optoclaw again." I quickly typed in to the chat my skype user name making sure to tell him it was for skype. Moments later I recieved his call and automatically added Clara to the call.

"Hey Optoclaw what's up?" I questioned him.

"Nothing much, just acting like a mini me of Simon from the Yogscast. What about you? And do I know you?"

"Yes you do know me, I was the chick with the sword remember?"

"Oh yeah! Well ya sound differently on the mic then you do irl."

"Same to you except vise versa," Clara inputted.

"Let me guess, the other chick is the one that wanted to murder the bitch pack?"

"Yes she is, and how did you onow we called them the bitch pack?" I asked a little freaked out.

"Wait, you do? I just called them that because it sounded fitting. They are bitches after all."

"True that," Clara.

"So what brings you to my lovely sever?" He asked in a weird voice before turning around and flying back down to the of the hole.

"Well we were board and I decided to play some Minecraft. We were digging out a little base of operations when we kind of found your reactor room."

"Was anything broken?"

"Only the wall," Clara.

"The we good. Aint no reason to worry over a broken wall when I has the materials to fix it."

"You do know that wasn't proper english right?" Clara asked him.

"Like I have told people many times, I don't care how I speak it. I only care how I type it. And quoting Church, "Things can't get any better and looked they can't get any worse, because that's the way things fuckin' are and ya better get used to it Nancy. Quit yer bitchin'.""

"You watch Red vs Blue?"

"Yeah, its- its been a great run." You could practically here the smile in his voice as he once again quoted Church. "So now that we are on the topic..."

"Oh god," Clara.

"If you had to choose which character you were who would you be? You can even be a cross between them." I thought for a moment before I answered.

"I would say I'm a cross between Tex and Caboose."

"Ah low intelligence but can still kick your ass if you piss her off."

"I would most likely be a cross between Tex, Church, and Grif."

"Lazy, short temper, and no fucks given atitude. Me like-y."

"What about you?" I asked him.

"Caboose, Tucker, Tex, and Church. But mostly Caboose."

"I could see it," Clara commented.

"And my brother would be Tucker, Simmons, Church, and Grif. But mostly Simmons and Church because, you know, he's a nerd and an ass hole. OHP! Gotta go, moms pissed off for no reason again, sse ya!"

"Bye!" We called before he left the call. Moments later we recieved a call over the radio about a stolen armored truck full of cash.

"*sigh* The life of a hero never rests," I said as I got up and grabbed my helmet. Today was definately going to be and has been a long day.


	5. Chapter 5

A New Face, But an Old Friend

Things have been rather, interesting after the terrorest incident. I have no idea why but it seems as if the crime rate has sky rocketed ever since then and just keeps rising. It's starting to get to the point where I'm afraid to leave the base in my armor or at all for that matter. Yeah I could kick their asses to kingdom come with little effort, but I am beggining to think that eventually it will come to a Batman or Superman thing where I end up having an arch nemesis because of my night job. Even after speaking with Draco he said that he's afraid something like this may end up happening eventually. What I find really weird though is that every once in a while he will go missing for days at a time and nobody will hear about where he is or see him anywhere until he returns. To top that off there are reports of a strange creature, extremely large, appearing around the same time and disappearing around the same time Draco returns. So as you can see I am kind of suspicious of him hiding some form of secret from me right now, but I will wait until he is ready to tell me before I jump to any conclusions.

Well after the incident I had another job about an hour later. Another hostage situation with Draco showing up as well. We took the person out and had all of our lethal settings activated on our weapons. Come to find out the mini gun elbow spikes on Draco's gauntlets actually work. They flip down so the barrels are facing towards his hands before sliding up to lock into place. The more block shaped back end that the barrels attach to open up to eject spent chemical cells. From what the primes told me the chemical that was inside of the cell is extremely similar to energon, especially it's synthetic counter part. However it has been designed where the user can use even less of the substance than one would need for a standard energon blast.

For instance his guns, because of their size, would need about a quarter sized drop of energon before it could shoot. However the chemical he uses allows for him to use a drop about the size of the tip of a pen. This is how he could utilize these mini guns on his armor and still keep their rapid fire, near limitless ammo feature. Strange how anybody has yet to see him use his swords or the strange black box on his back for anything but decoration for his armor.

Anywho, after taking care of that I immediately had three armed robbery calls back to back and about seven more attempted rape calls. Again all of the victims were guys, how the hell? When I was done with those calls I headed home and to bed. In the morning I went cave diving with Clara to try and find some energon. However it isn't like how we found the titanium deposit by sheer dum luck, so we're still searching. At the moment Clara and I are playing Minecraft at the base on Op's server. Or at least we were because not a few minutes after I found a crap ton of diamonds did we get...

"_Midnight Prime this is Crystal City dispatch, we know that you are listening in so please respond._" We looked between each other before we left the server and turned on the voice change-a-ma-doo-hikey.

"This is Midnight Prime and Zodiac, we hear you loud and clear dispatch. Go ahead." If I haven't said anything before then I will now, Crystal City is the name of Clara and I's home town.

"_We recently got a call from a miss Laura Fowler who wants to see you._"

"Tell her she can speak with us if she buys us some Outback Steakhouse," Clara said before I could respond. I gave her a playful glare before returning my attention to the call.

"Sorry miss but you can tell her we don't just answer a random persons request for a chat? If she wants to speak with us she will either need to prove that she wants to bad enough or give us a traid of somekind."

"Like food, I'm fricken hungry." This time I gave her a true glare, while trying not to smile.

"_She thought she may have some problems with you so she wanted me to tell you something. She claims to be a special agent for the government in a devision known as The Autobot Embasador Program, whatever the hell that is._" I was stunned silent as I stared at the mic in shock. Even Clara knew what she said.

"Tell this 'special agent Fowler' that I wish to speak with her immediately."

"_Really? You know what she's talking about? _"

"Yes I do now put her on the line." There was silence for a few moments as dispatch tried to contact the agent once again.

"_She told me to reley this message, 'Meet me where the Forge is._'"

"Is that it?"

"_Yes it is ma'am. Do you kno-_"

"Thank you for the help dispatch we can take it from here. Midnight Prime out. Zodiac I will finish your armor before we leave."

"I thought you were going to build it completely from scratch?" She asked as I retrieved the Forge from the case it was standing in.

"That is true, but we have no idea who this woman is. For all we know this could be a ploy to get me out in the open so they can try to capture me."

"So you need back up because anything they say may be half baked truths that some fairly good hacker got after cracking into a government database?"

"Correct."

"Then why don't you just contact Draco? He would be far more help than I would."

"Well here's the thing, we don't know each other all that well because there has only been a handful of times where we have met and both of those times we met in situations that required more attention than it did chatting. So logically it would stand to reason that we still have quite a few secrets hidden from each other."

"...Maybe we should have called you Smart-ass Prime intstead."

"Whatever, I just don't want him to know I'm a techno-organic yet. Besides I have no idea how to contact him and tell him where to meet me without alerting the entire Crystal City police force. Now you said 'rust red' in color right?" She smirked at me before I removed the unfinished armor from its stand as well as a few chunks of titanium from a bin.

Clara's armor is a lot like mine just, you know, rust red and no built in weaponry. Also the jet pack isn't as compact as mine is where the wings are barely noticeable when collapsed, you can clearly see them. I also forged her a giant gun that was also part sword that I dubbed _The Buster Saber_. It's primarily black with a blue handle and red and blue highlights all over. The trigger was also on the handle and the barrel of the gun goes straight thru the blade with on half of the blade being longer than the other, the longer half being on the underside of the barrel where the ammo cartridge is. The chemical ammo cartridge is shaped to look like a pump action shotgun grip.

Once everything was done we set out to find this 'Laura Fowler,' heading straight for her location. I also made sure to pull out the big guns as well seeing as the Cyber Caliber was situated in its sheath across the small of my back. We got there long before the special agent. Choosing to hide in the bushes so we couldn't be caught off guard, the task made even easier by our dark colored armor, we waited for about five more minutes before an ambulance pulled up to the mouth of the cave. A young black woman, around her twenties in age, stepped out of the drivers door before walking out into full view in front of the cave.

She put her hands on her hips, purposefully moving her jacket to the side and showing us that she was unarmed and ready to talk. Eyeing the ambulance carefully I desckreetally motioned to Clara to keep her eye on the ambulance seeing as they could quite possibly carry many people in the rear section if it was not filled with the usual supplies and junk. I then motioned for Clara to stand and make her way out with her weapon drawn and aiming at the woman.

"I hope this tells you everything you need to know?" She asked, finger poised over the trigger and digital eyes narrowed in warning. Her voice modulator was different enough so anybody could tell the difference between the two of us. The woman raised her arms in the air to signify that she got the message.

"I wish to speak to Midnight Prime."

"That depends on if I trust you or not."

"_That ambulance seems familiar,_" I heard Optimus say within my mind. I immediately narrowed my eyes at the inigma that caught the attention of my fellow Prime and ran a scan on it. The heat it was giving off was higher than a car should be, especially if the entire vehicle is the exact same temperature rearend and all. Activating the blaster in my left hand and drawing the Cyber Caliber with my right I immediately left my cover to help my best friend confront the agent.

"You wanted to speak, now speak." I warned.

"We have been trying to contact you for a while now and as you can see only our most recent attempt has been successful."

"On with it," Clara warned dangerously. Focusing on the agents body posture I began to notice key elements in the way she stood. For one she wasn't afraid of us so she must have some kind of ace up her sleeve, and the ambulance was no doubt a part of that. Although she was still extremely nervous judging by the rise in her body temperature and the slight glistening of the sweat on her forehead that was just visible to us because of her positioning compared to that off the moon. So she was nervous and had an ace in the hole that would most likely garentee her safety. Not the most ideal combination but oh well.

"We have noticed something that you have that may link you to a few allies that we have. This may eventually cause a misunderstanding that we wish to avoid." Silence, that's all there was for the few time defying moments that we stood there. Eventually it got to the point where these two weren't going so took the initiative.

"How about you tell that Cybertronian friend of yours to stop hiding. Maybe then will we trust you enough to speak with you."

"What's a-"

"And don't even think about trying to fool us," Clara said before the woman could continue.

"Who do you think your trying to fool? News flash bitch it ain't that easy to fool a Prime chosen by the Matrix!" At the mention of those words not only did the woman's eyes widen in amazement and shock but the ambulance shuddered as well. Whether it was shock or something else remains to be seen.

"Listen could we possibly rap this up quickly? We got some shit to do in the morning and it's pretty late," Clara fibbed, bringing me back to reality.

"Sure thing Zodiac, now get a move on. We want to speak with the Cybertronian. And don't try to bull shit us, we know that it is the ambulance otherwise you would not have brought it with you, even in the event that one of us is injured or you somehow manage to subdue one or both of us. There had to have been some other reason as to why you brought it here and that is the only other logical explanation besides using it as a low key troop transport, which is very unlikely." Before anyone of us could speak again there was a familiar sound, one I had long since acclamated to my own transformation sequence. Looking behind the young African American woman I took notice of the nearly 20 ft robot that was now standing next to her.

_"It cannot be... Ratchet? _" Optimus asked from within my mind. The now named Ratchet knelt down to my level so that we could be far more even as we spoke.

"You wanted to speak to me human now talk," he ordered grumpily.

"It's that anyway to speak to the newest of the Primes?"

"I will believe you are a Prime when I see that you are indeed in possession of the Matrix of Leadership. Until then-," he was cut off and took the favor of gaping in surprise as my chest plates clicked open to reveal the mystical object. "How did you..."

"How I found it and how I became a Prime can be discussed at a later date. For now I wish to know why you have 'summoned' us here."

"The main reason was to merely confirm that you were indeed in contact with a Cybertronian. Seeing as that worry is no longer needed we shall get down to the second part of business. I wish that you and your friend swap bases to ours so that we may keep an eye on you and make sure that you are protected."

"Uh, no."

"No?"

"That's just what I said was it not? Zodiac wasn't that what I just said. "

"I believe that it was."

"Well then please remind me what I said?"

"It was definately a distinct no."

"Why? Are you just too good or something? "Laura asked.

"No we are not, we just prefer to work amongst ourselves for now."

"Besides, do you know how long it took us to build our secret base in the first place? We did several days worth of work in just a few hours, it was a total pain in the ass," Clara asked, making it sound even more difficult than it was, although it was incredibly difficult to begin with. She then lowered her weapon and I deactivated my blaster and sheathed the Cyber Caliber as well as closed my chest plating.

"Don't forget the numerous days we spent gathering the materials we needed to get all of our equipment."

"True, that was a major bitch as well."

"Listen here human, you hold one of Cybertron's greatest relics and last I checked you were not a Cybertronian. Now seeing as I am a Cybertronian citizen I hold more authority over it than you do. So while you may be the holder of-"

"News flash dick head, Primes are at the top of the Cybertronian political system. And seeing as how I am the current wielder of the Matrix I hold more authority over it than you do medic! Now I may not be a citizen of Cybertron by birth but I am through customs. Besides when I chose to wield the Matrix my body was upgraded to better accommodate it."

"Wait, are you saying that this isn't some drone or illusionary trick? And that this is your actual body?"

"Yes it is. This is the very same body I was given when I was conceived and born. The only difference is that now I am a techno-organic, as my body was changed when I accepted the offer that the Matrix gave me."

"And what offer was that?" Laura asked, having been silent for some time now.

"Take the Matrix apon myself and help to save my world from the rising darkness that is the Chaos Bringer, or decline and wait for the end without being able to do anything when he finally arrived."

"That is preposterous. Unicron has been sealed away for thousands of years in the vessel which once contained the Allspark, which by the way is an indestructible container meant to house pure energy. Having ascended physical being Unicron is now unable to escape the container and wreak havoc on anything ever again. So why should we believe you when you say that Unicron is once again loose and wishes to destroy your world?"

"Because Optimus told me himself!" This caused them to become silent. "He told me that in order to defeat Unicron he had to seal him away using the Allsparks vessel, but in order to do that he had to empty the vessels contents into the Matrix in turn making it impossible to pass down the lineage of the Primes. After Optimus joined with the core of Cybertron, Primus must have sensed that Unicron was able to free himself somehow and removed the Allspark from the Matrix and sent it to the location that the next candidate for Prime would be. I found the Matrix in a cave, meaning that Unicron broke out long enough ago to allow the Matrix to wait all this time with the surrounding terrain forming around it. However he can't really go any where all that quickly because he is a mass of energy trying to find his way across the cosmos without a body or vessel of any kind to aid him, forcing him to expend massive amounts of energy as he makes his way here. This gave the Matrix plenty of time to await the arrival of the next candidate that would be a true Prime because Unicron would need to constantly rest from the massive amounts of energy he expends every time he begins to move. The Matrix chose me, I am the Prime it was looking for. Now if you have a problem with that take it up with the Primus!" After my little rant there was nothing but silence with Ratchet hanging his head in shame immediately after. We stood like that for a few moments as I took this chance to recompense myself.

"I- am sorry that I have been such a fool. The Matrix only ever reacts to one who is worthy to be a Prime. I guess that I was just angry at you because I thought you were sullying our sacred relic. I guess I am still a little prejudice towards humans even after meeting Jack, Raff, and Miko. If you carry the Matrix then you are indeed blessed by Primus. Please forgive my rude behavior."

"Alright, but I want something in return."

"Anything, just name it."

"Well or generator back at base is currently running on coal," Clara began as she looked to me.

"Yeah and we are having difficulty finding an energon deposit, so I was kind of hoping that we could get about 15 energon cubes to tide us over so we don't have to keep taking coal from the closest quarry to run our generators."

"You have been stealing resources from the local quarry?"

"Hey we wouldn't need to if we could run our base off of the grids power, but secret bases need their own power supply, and we have yet to find an energon deposit of our own. So as consolation for you doubting me being a Prime a will take enough energon to run our generators, as well as a backup supply. So 15 cubes should do." Ratchet and Laura exchanged glances with Laura shrugging at the unasked question.

"You know more about the supply than I do Ratch," she replied.

"I guess we could spare 15 or so cubes. Besides if we run out we could always make more considering the fact that we have the recipe for the syn-then."

"Wait, if you have the formula for the synthetic energon, why do you need the real stuff?" Clara asked the medic.

"Because I prefer the taste of the real stuff over the fake." At this I managed to crack a smile, which was reflected through my helmets digital eyes. "However there is the fact that while you no doubt have enhanced strength from your augmentation and your friend because of her armor, you still do not possess the strength to carry so many cubes of energon in one go."

"Oh I have the strength, it's just the matter of distance and being able to keep everything balanced on the way home."

"Also there is the fact that because I am still fully human my armor doesn't give me much of a strength boost. You know body tolerances and all that jazz," Clara reminded me.

"That is also true, however we run into a little problem here. Because we do not want to work with anybody unless absolutely necessary we cannot take the cubes directly to our base without exposing it."

"And we can't take them near our base without risk of exposure either."

"Using the Ground Bridge would also be out of the question seeing as that gives me the exact coordinates if I ever wished to locate and go directly to your base," Ratchet said.

"What if you just take a cube of energon with you and make a smaller version of the Ground Bridge there then use it to transport the rest?" Lauren suggested. To be honest it wasn't the best of ideas, but it wasn't the worst either.

"While not a bad idea it isn't exactly ideal either," the old medic began, "In order to power a Ground Bridge one must have a considerable amount of energon, at least eight times that needed to power any normal Cybertronian. Even if we were to scale it down to human size it would still need quite a bit."

"How much we talking about with any normal Cybertronian?" Clara queryed.

"Hmmm, most Cybertronians range anywhere between 15 to 30 feet in height. Arcee was the smallest of us being a little over fifteen feet and she needed at least one cube when low, half a cube normal rations. Optimus was the largest of us needing at least four cubes when low, two normal rations. There is also a fuel to distance ratio, so depending on how far away your base of operations is from this location or even our base could put a huge dent in our agreed amount that you would be getting."

"I'm beginning to think that it would just be easier to give them the syn-then formula, " Laura.

"Yeah me too, let's go with that instead," Clara somewhat begged.

"Fine, I guess we could just go for the formula."

"Would you even be able to understand it?" He questioned.

"I have all of the previous Primes before me teaching me how to at least understand your basic math, I think I'll be fine."

"That I have no doubt you would be able to do. What I am speaking of is would you be able to understand the formula even once you have it translated to a language you could read without much thought?" Here we were silent, again. Would we be able to understand it?

'Hey Solus, would you be able to, I don't know, tell me how to make the syn-then if you had the formula?'

'_I'm a mystical blacksmith, not a scientist so I can't help you there._'

'_I was merely the leader of the Primes, I hold no other skills besides that,_' Prima said.

'_I am essentially a walking clock, come back to me when you want to know the time,_' Vector half joked, half informed.

'_I was just a data clerk. Ratchet was always given the scientific duties._'

'Dear god you guys are killing me!'

"Well it was essentially a collective no from the other Primes when I asked the question of , 'would we understand this?' And not surprisingly none of them would be able to tell us how to understand it as they would have no clue either and would be derpping like the rest of us."

"I guess we have no choice but to tell them where our base is huh?" Clara asked me. To be honest I was not to keen on allowing anybody other than ourselves near the base as of yet, even if one of those people, or bots in this case, was an Autobot. I was also quite tempted to just stick with the coal for now but it runs out quickly and we will get caught stealing it eventually. Not to mention it's a pain in the ass to reroute where the smoke ends up so one, it doesn't fill our base and suffocate us and two, so the large cloud produced by the coal doesn't give away or position. So right now we really only have one option left open to us. We need the energon or we risk revealing the location of our base to even less savory eyes.

"Zodiac is right, we have no other choice at the moment. Besides I'm pretty sure you would find out sooner or later where it's location is." Smiling at us, the Cybertronian then preceded to bring a controller of some kind out of, what I am assuming was, a subspace. Pressing a few buttons lead to a large green portal opening behind him. So this is what a Ground Bridge looked like in person. Clara and I followed through with Lauren and Ratchet in front of us.

To be honest I felt slightly sick to my stomach, but Clara was kneeling over with how badly it made her feel. Ratchet was standing there with this shit eating grin on his face. He knew about the side effects but didn't think to warn us! Not even Lauren!

"Oh right I forgot to mention the Bridge sickness, sorry," Lauren apologized with a sheepish look on her face.

"You're a bitch," Clara blanched as she fought to keep the contents of her stomach from seeing the light of day sooner than it needed to.

"Don't you dare throw up inside that helmet! I just made that thing and I'll be dammed if I have to clean and fix it so soon!"

"You made her helmet?" Ratchet asked as he searched through his computer.

"I made her entire suit of armor. Originally I was going to build it slowly, you know savor the feeling of making something. But you guys called and I wanted to have backup just in case things went south so I used the Forge of Solus Prime-"

"WHAT!? But the Forge was drained of all its power not to mention far too large for you to wield it effectively!" Ratchet screeched as he stopped his searching to give his full attention to us.

"That's just the thing," Clara began, "Optimus directed us to the cave the Forge was located in after Predaking broke it in his fight with Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack. At the time we didn't have the mining equipment that we needed to dig out our base and Optimus thought that we could repurpose the Forge into the equipment we needed. After a cry fest from Solus and making an actual forge powerful enough to melt it down we made a new Forge of Solus Prime and used what we had left from the melted hammer to make the mining equipment. We then used the titanium we found as we excavated or base to help build the walls and equipment."

"So you made a new Forge?"

"With the help of Solus Prime yes," I said, "The only reason why Optimus never did it was because you guys were in the middle of a war and the process to make the mystical hammer can't just be stopped and picked up at a moments notice. You need to do everything once you start the process or start over if you take longer than a few moments to go to the next step. Basically it is an extremely tedious process plain and simple."

"I see. So what you are saying is that we could have made a new Forge any time we wished if it wasn't for our war with the Decepticons?"

"Yep, that pretty much sums everything right up."

"Sometimes I really hate my life."

"Yeah, we know," Clara joked. He returned his attention to the screen and a few moments later...

" Ah, here we are. Now I only need a storage device to put the Syn-then formula on so we already have it there when we decide it to be time to teach you how."

"There in lies another problem, we don't have any slots on our computer large enough for a Cybertronian sized thumb drive and I highly doubt any normal, human thumb drives would have enough space on them, let alone be compatible enough with a Cybertonian computer system to even attempt putting something like the Syn-then formula on it."

"Actually we can put Cybertronian information on human technology. When our original human allies were still alive, Raff once used one of his 'thumb drives' to download a Space Bridge schematic he found on a computer at a radio telescope array that the Decepticon's were using as a temporary replacement for the one Bulkhead had destroyed on a rescue mission to save Laura's oh so great grandfather, William Fowler. I however do not know how much data it was able to hold, so it would be best to purchase the largest size possible. Unless you already have a thumb drive with ample space." I stood there in thought for a few moments as I tried to recollect what size of thumb drives I have.

"As far as I know I only have one 16 gig drive and four eight gig drives, all of which are filled with music, pictures, and television series' that I have collected over the years. And if I remember correctly Zodiac has a 32 gig thumb drive that she just recently bought, right Zo?"

"Yeah, I just got it two days ago so I could transfer some sensitive information into the base's computers. There isn't anything on it yet except for the drivers and other stuff necessary to run it, so we should be good."

"I believe that it could work. Tell me, where is it right now?"

"I left it at home 'cause I didn't think that I would need it. I also didn't want to risk telling my parents why I needed a new one so soon. Wouldn't exactly workout very well if I told them a brand new, unused, $100 flash drive flash drive was suddenly missing or destroyed."

"We could quickly Bridge you back to your house so you can grab it," Laura suggested.

"That isn't a very good idea," I began, "Zodiac's parents are pretty light sleepers so it's extremely hard to get anything by them unless you already know how quite you have to be. Even then you have very little margin for error."

"Hmm, so it is safe to say that we will go with the original plan for now, and you will come back at a later date to attain the Syn-then formula?"

"I guess, though it seems as if the easy route isn't exactly the easy route at the moment." In return I got three grunts and nods in affirmation to my claim. It took Ratchet a few minutes to gather together all of the cubes for transport. When that step of the process was finished he reactivated the Ground Bridge to my specified coordinates and the four of us walked through. The second time through wasn't as bad as the first but it still needed some getting used to. Anyway the Ground Bridge brought us out side of the 'garage door.' Quickly finding the 'rock' that hid the secret keypad I unscrewed it, input my code, put the rock back in its place, and watched as the doors opened in all of their glory. Stealing a glance back at Ratchet and Laura I noticed the impressed looks on their faces.

"This is quite large to be the main door, that is unless the two of you have any vehicles that you may own away from the crime fighting personas," Ratchet observed.

"Actually the main door is human sized and located eIseware," Clara informed as she pushed the massive cart that held the energon down the very long ramp with a gun and lots of effort. "This garage door was put in for any future cars and stuff we may have."

"I would be lying if I said that I didn't have any future Autobot alliances in mind when I designed the base."

"Really, do tell," Ratchet said as he transformed so he could fit into the tunnel.

"Well our opponent is the Chaos Bringer himself, so it was simply logical thinking when I figured that I may eventually need help. And who better to help defeat Unicron than the team that has already done it twice previous?"

"With logic and thinking like that I can definitely now see why the Matrix chose you to be the newest Prime."

"Actually the thinking part came after she was Prime," Clara said, "But the logic was always there so there isn't too much to worry about."

"Shut up Zo!" I heard a few snickers come from Ratchet, Laura, and the Primes so my pride took a serious hit just then. But hey, it was all in good nature so shouldn't be too bad! After two minutes of walking we finally made our way into the parking section. There weren't too many parking spots and the cieling was high enough to allow Optimus to walk in with plenty of room between it and his head. I'm talking about Optimus after his upgrade. Once Ratchet was in his robot mode again we made our way to the main room.

"This is the main room and where we spend most of our time either playing Minecraft or maintaining our equipment as we wait for the next call. Down that hall is a few barracks, both human and Cybertronian. There are also many adjacent hallways that lead to other rooms such as storage rooms, the generator room, and a bathroom or two."

"Wait you finally put plumbing in the bathrooms?" Clara questioned me.

"Yeah, remember that day where you were gone because your mom needed help running errands but your dad was being an ass hat?"

"Yes."

"That was the day that I finally put plumbing into all of the rooms that still needed it. Trust me when I say it's extremely hard to find previously dug tunnels and sewer lines as you are makeing new ones."

"So, how many barracks did you put in this place?" Laura asked me.

"Cybertronian wise, enough to house team Prime and then some if need be. When it comes to the human barracks there are enough rooms to house a small platoon. I wanted to be ready just in case my so far small team ended up becoming a giant team like the Justice League."

"What's the Justice League?"

"When you spend as much time on the internet as we do you tend to find a lot of stuff that was aired on TV as far back as the 1960's," Clara informed.

"Like some old show named 'Sanford & Son,' or one that is so old it wasn't even in color until they remastered it, and its name was 'The Andy Griffith Show.' Now you can see how random we are when it comes to conversations."

"It makes things that much more fun."

"That it does," Ratchet said as he began to move down the halway, "Now which one of these rooms in the energon storage room?"

"Third door on the left! There should be another door inside on the right that leads into the generator room!" I heard a grunt of acknowledgement come from down the hall, meaning that he had heard what I said. A few minutes later he exited the halway with a look that read impressed.

"You took a look at the generator?" Clara guessed.

"How you managed to not only make it able to run on coal but energon as well without needing to make an entirely new generator just baffles me."

"Well Solus made the design. I just followed her directions and swung the hammer."

"Interesting, well I believe that we have done everything that we could have possibly done for you at this point in time."

"Yep, if we need anymore help from you guys we'll be sure to ask."

"We will also tell you when Zodiac has access to her flash drive. Maybe then I can learn some Cybertronian science?" I added.

"Aren't you horrible at math?" Clara asked me.

"Yes I am, but if you might recall I aced middle school home economics and high school chemestry. That was just measuring out and adding in the ingredients. If I need to make more than one batch I could always use a calculator to multiply the amounts by however much I need... and I just remembered that I essentially am a calculator now so I am most likely no longer horrible at math."

"Much fail, many wow."

"Shut up."

"My question is would you be able to understand the written language of cybertron?" Laura asked.

"It would stand to reason that I should seeing as the language was automatically downloaded into my brain apon accepting the Matrix." She mouthed the word, 'oh,' before she and Ratchet said their good byes and left.

"Okay, I'll say it. That Ratchet guy's a bit of a dick," Clara randomly spouted after makeing sure they were not in earshot. Of course with this beeing so 'out of the blue' I was caught off guard and a moment later was collapsed on the ground laughing my ass off and gasping for air with Clara following close behind me a second later. After our little laugh fest I noticed there was a message notification showing on our computer screen saying it was sent over our private channel. There was only one person we gave that frequency to and we have only met face to face twice.

"Hey Clara, looks like we got a message from Draco."

"Really? What's it say?"

"_I need help, meet me at the Yellowstone National Park entrance._"

"Sounds ominus."

"And serious, luckily you haven't taken your armor off yet cause we're heading out again," I informed as I headed towards the main entrance.

"Really!? But it's almost midnight!"

"Then we better make this quick!" I called back a bit frustrated, most likely because of the late hour. It took us a couple of minutes to get there and when we did It looked as if Draco was in pain. He seemed to be clutching his chest and writhing on the ground.

"Oh my god are you alright!?" I exclaimed in worry as we landed and quickly rushed to his side.

"Were you shot or some thing?" Clara asked him.

"So you are that Zodiac person Midnight is always talking too," he began groaning in pain soon after as he struggled to sit himself up against the post he was leaning on, "What a pleasure to meet you in the flesh and no it is no wound causing me this fucking pain!" He started off his sentence calm enough but I guess whatever is doing this is really getting to him.

"So tell us what happend!"

"I guess you could call it a bit of a personal problem, on a good day. Some would call it a blessing, most would call it curse. Those sightings of that strange creature that shows up every time I disappear is no coincidence."

"Are you going to tell us that you some how change into it?" Clara questioned. At this question he raised his right arm and removed the gauntlet, exposing his bare arm from the elbow down. Then the strangest and coolest thing I have ever saw happened. His entire hand morphed into what appeared to be tan armored claws! At each knuckle there was a small bone spike that sprouted backwards towards his hand.

"Holy crap he most likely is the creature," I dead panned in awe.

"Most likely?" He questioned, trying to hide the pain.

"Nobody has gotten a clear look at it only glimpses. The only thing we have been able to determine is that it's very large. Now what is it that you have called us here to do?"

"Well, whatever creature it is that I turn into seems to fill me with massive amounts of bloodlust which can be satiated by me drinking blood, eating raw meat, or even feeding off of a fresh kill. But for some reason those instincts tend to sub side when you are around. Even now your presence is slowly quelling the beast within me. Hopefully I won't loose control this time."

"By loose control you mean?"

"When I quite literally become the beast. It isn't too pleasant an experience seeing as the process causes massive amounts of pain beyond anything most people would experience. Other than when 'it' takes control the minor changes I can go through no longer hurt like hell."

"So there was a point where every change you did caused pain?" Clara asked him. By this point I noticed his breathing was no longer as labored as it was when we first arrived.

"Yes there was a point where all of my transformations hurt, but no longer since I have gotten used to them. Well, most of them at least." I looked at Clara to silently deliver the unspoken declaration through my helmets digital eyes. Seeing as I was not going to give into anything she was going to say in negation she sighed in unchallenged defeat and shrugged her shoulders.

"Tell you what Draco, seeing the position in which you are in it would stand to reason that taking you home is a bad idea-"

"Understatement of the century," he said before going quiet again.

"And we have extra rooms in our base of operations in any event where we gain 'members' of sorts. I have no doubt that given more time you would have eventually ended up on this 'team' anyway. So you may stay with us for the time being until you feel comfortable enough to leave."

"Are you sure it is alright for me too see the location of your base so soon after meeting?"

"You gave us your biggest secret, in my eyes I see it to only be fare that we give you the biggest secret in which we both share. Besides you don't seem like the type of guy who would care too much for fancy bases."

"Actually most of my time and materials goes to improving my gear and making new weapons. So I don't usually spend time even thinking about improving my head quarters."

"I see, feel well enough to fly?" I asked as I pulled him up.

"Maybe, although I'm still a bit shaky on my feet so probably not. By the way, you said shared secret. What do on you mean by that?"

"Just like anyone else we have many secrets. The location of our base is the largest secret we both had a hand in creating. All our other secrets are will most generally be personal and kept between best friends."

"Ah, thank you for the clarification."

"We could both take an arm and carry you there," Clara suggested, bringing us back to the previously discussed topic that had yet to be resolved. Draco and I shared a quick glance and a few minutes later we were in the air. The extra set of boosters actually helped propel us faster. Once there we gently set him on his feet and headed towards the rock formation that our base resides under.

"You hid it in the rock didn't you?" He asked.

"Partially in, but mostly under," I answered semi vaguely. He followed us into the alcove and I input my code into the keypad. The door opened not long after and the three of us made our way inside and down to the main room.

"Impressive, way beyond anything I could ever hope to accomplish even in a certain computer game I like to play."

"Feel free to chose whatever room you like down that hallway. There are plenty and they all have plumbing in the bathrooms so it doesn't really matter."

"Why are there doors that looks like they were made for giant?" Clara and I exchanged a quick look with her giving me one to signify that I was the best choice to either give a lie or a vague answer.

"That is a conversation to be had at a later date, when we feel more comfortable with your presence to give you answers to your more sensitive questions. Until that time comes there are still some things that we will keep from you just like you no doubt have more secrets to keep from us until you're sure that we truly are trustworthy enough to hear them." There was a brief silence before he nodded his head in confirmation to what I had said.

"Well then I thank you two for your help. I know we just met a few days ago but through your kindness I feel as if I have known you for years. Hopefully the day we can trust each other implicitly comes sooner rather than later." And with that he walked down the hallway with the sound of a closing door following soon after.

'"I'll tell my parents that I'm staying at your house tonight."

"But in truth your staying here?"

"Yeah, you heard what he said my prescence calms down whatever monster lerks inside of him and you saw the condition he was in before we got there. If I don't stay then there is a possibility he will lose control and get loose. We are far too close to Crystal City to allow that to happen."

"You're also worried he might destroy the base in the process aren't you?"

"The base we can rebuild, the city itself we can rebuild, but if Draco goes out there on a bloodlust induced rage the cassulty count will be far to high for him to ever forgive himself. My presence calms the beast so I will stay here for the night and make sure he gets something in his system so he won't lose control once I leave. He trusted us enough to give us his secret. I will not betray that trust by letting him lose control." She nodded her head in understanding before giving me a quick hug and heading home. I then sent a quick message to my parents telling them I was staying at Clara's before I made my way to one of the human sized rooms and tested to see if it was locked. It was so I went across the hall to that bedroom. Locking my door I removed my helmet and reverted my body back into its human form before climing into the bed.

I layed there for a few minutes thinking on the days events before rolling over and trying to get some sleep. It had been a VERY long day.


	6. Chapter 6

Shela

'_Where am I_?' I thought as I sat up. Looking around I noticed, with my limited night vision, silver walls and a silver floor all presumably made of metal. I was just about to panic when yesterdays memories finally made themselves known. '_Right, well I'm a huge frigin dork_.'

I rose from the bed I had used the night before and reactivated my armour before putting my helmet back on. Once I had done that I made my way out of the room and into the hallway. The first thing that I noticed was that the door across from the one I used last night was slightly ajar, meaning that Draco had obviously left already. At least those were my initial thoughts because the second thing I took notice to was the armoured figure that was now standing between me and the main room, aka to my left. Turning towards the figure I saw that it was indeed Draco. What was said next swiftly followed a growling noise that emanated from his stomach.

"Do you have any food?" Trying not to laugh at the perfect placement of his question I asked if he had been waiting for his stomach to growl before he asked it. His response was to slowly nod his head in confirmation. I chuckled a small bit before I led him to our mini-fridge.

"We don't have much in the way of food at the moment, just a few snacks. And I haven't thought to add in a kitchen or mess hall yet because we don't have many human allies on our team yet. Besides me, Zodiac, and now you there is only one other human on our team and we met her not long before we came out to pick you up." We walked into the main room and I typed in a few commands into the computer before a compartment in the wall opened between the two massive monitors and out slid the mini-fridge.

"So what do you have in the way of snacks?"

"Hmm, a twelve pack of Dr. Pepper-''

"I want one," I looked at him strangely before he 'edited' what he just said. "Please may I have a Dr. Pepper." I nodded before handing him one of the refreshing beverages. So I already found another thing that he had in common with Clara and I. He was a Dr. Pepper fanatic.

"We also have some candy bars, chips, gummy bears, and some cookies."

"What kind of candy bars?"

"Well, do you want a Snickers or a Three Musketeers?"

"Three Musketeers."

"And we have some Garden Salsa Sun Chips-"

"OOH! I'll take some of those too please." I just shook my head in amusement at his childishness. In fact I was having a hard time believing that this was the same young man who wanted to kill that terrorist for killing that woman. I gave him his requested food and he took one of the rolling chairs to the other side of the room so he could eat without me seeing his face.

I waited for him to finish before I called him back over. We needed to discuss what we were going to do about his 'inner beast.' Our main problem was my presence being the only thing that could calm it without him needing to ingest blood or raw meat and after seeing him in the state he was in just last night before mine and Clara's arrival it wouldn't be a good idea for me to leave him by himself or with Clara. There would be an extremely high possibility that he would lose control before I returned. And I couldn't exactly just go to a hospital and ask for a bag of blood. Not only would they not give it to me but they would also look at me as if I were insane. It would also be a bad idea for me to steel any blood for him seeing as it would ruin my reputation and the public wouldn't trust me any more.

"Draco I am sorry to say, but I am out of ideas as to how we are going to get this blood lust thing figured out."

"Same, all of our ideas lead us to being seen as a menace to society or having them just plain un-trusting of us. Maybe if Zodiac was here-"

"Guess who's back bitches!" She called as she walked into the main room, thankfully with her armour on. At this point an idea sprang forward in my mind.

"Hey Zo come with me," I said as I drug her into the hallway worth me.

"Okay what is this about?" She asked. I had taken us into the generator room so we could speak in private without Draco overhearing us. Once I made sure he wasn't going to try to eavesdrop I removed the Matrix from my chest plating and motioned for her to touch it. After her digital eyes made a 'here we go again' face she touched the Matrix and we were whisked in.

"Clara, it is nice to see you again," Optimus greeted as he walked up to us.

"Hey big guy, so is there a reason you brought us into the Matrix?" She asked.

"Yes there is. As you and the Primes no doubt know by now my presence is the only thing keeping Draco's inner beast from coming free and we still don't have anything to calm it to the point that it doesn't take over as soon as I leave. So I was wondering if it were possible to make blood bags and an IV using the Forge of Solus Prime."

"Wait, you want to give Draco some of your blood don't you?" She asked.

"Guilty as charged."

"If I may interject for a moment," Optimus said as he stepped forward, "I do not think it is a wise idea for you to donate your own blood to calm Draco's inner beast. You are now a techno-organic, the first ever, we have no idea how your biology will interact with his. For all we know your blood could be just as toxic to an organic body as energon is."

"Have you forgotten that I am still partly organic? Because you just said that I am the first ever techno-organic. As far as we know my organic half nullifies the effects of my blood being toxic so we should be good."

"There is a problem however," he began, "Much like a Cybertronian, your life blood fuels your weaponry and jet pack with the only difference being you can replenish what you lose through natural means. You also use less of your life blood in each blaster shot and every time you activate your jet pack than any normal Cybertronian does. So logic would dictate that if your blood is fuel for your equipment then it is also toxic to other organics."

"While I don't disagree with you big guy," Clara started, "We have to try something or we are screwed. Lexi can't just walk into a hospital and ask for blood, and if she steals it the public won't trust her anymore."

"And I am not about to ask my best friend to donate blood to keep Draco's inner beast at bay. My presence calms him, maybe if he were to ingest my blood it will take longer for him to get to the point where he loses control." At this Optimus quieted. He knew I was right, and I knew that he was right. However we were out of options and this situation needed to be rectified before we even left the base. When we left the Matrix we found ourselves back in the generator room. As we left the room I noticed a presence right next to the door and looked to my left. Sitting right there was Draco.

"I felt it pushing against my mind the second you guys left the room. Don't worry I didn't try to listen in, I just didn't want to lose control." Even through the voice filter I could hear the fear in his voice and I really didn't like it.

"But the bedrooms are pretty far apart aren't they? How come you didn't lose control last night?" Clara asked him.

"Yes they are pretty far apart but I could still sense Midnight, albeit barely. However the distance from the main monitor to whatever this room is used for is far greater than between the bedrooms."

"Well we may have a solution to your little problem." At the mention of a possible solution to his 'little' problem he perked up. The problem was that we didn't want him to see how we were able to construct all of our equipment just yet. We told him to wait outside of our materials room/forge and got to work creating the necessary equipment for the blood donation. Did you know you only needed a chunk of titanium the size of a penny to make a blood bag, tube, and the needle thing you stick in your arm to draw the blood? Well I sure as hell didn't until now. After making the stuff I reverted my left arm back into its human form, stuck the needle in, and waited at least two minutes before the bag had filled. Another interesting fact, my blood had a slight blue glow to it.

"What's wrong with your blood?" He asked me as we handed him the bag. Clara and I glanced at each other briefly before giving an answer.

"Let's just say that like you I am very... Uh, unique." He seemed to think about this before turning away from us and walking a small distance away. We heard what sounded like metal clunking, obviously the face plate opening, before he shuddered and tilted his head back to down his 'drink.' I was so worried that he was just going to croak the second he drank it that I tried to bite my nails through the face mask on my helmet. Instead he closed his face mask and turned towards us.

"It had a bit of a strange taste to it, but I do feel 'the Beast' retreating from my consciousness. Thank you, both of you, for helping when I needed it most."

"No problem man, you would do the same for us," Clara said. The two shook hands before he turned his attention to me. I offered my hand but instead he gave me a hug. 'Okay! Sudden hug not so unexpected!'

'... What?' Solus. After the hug he left our base and was on his way.

"Okay, do you know why he hugged you?" Clara asked me.

"Considering I was willing to donate my very own blood to help calm his inner beast, he was probably extremely thankful and probably a bit impressed."

"Huh, okay... Wait, why would he be impressed?"

"Because most people would be unable to move after losing such a large quantity of blood in such short a time frame for several minutes. The fact that I was standing right in front of him after just recently giving blood, no matter how dizzy I am, showed him that I'm stronger than he previously thought I was. The only reason I am standing right now is by sheer will power alone. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go sit down, the room is spinning and I feel as if I am going to throw up." I heard her snicker a little bit as I turned away and headed towards the main room, stumbling all the way and almost tripping over my own feet numerous times. By the time I made it to my chair I was already collapsing into it. Pulling myself up the rest of the way and maneuvering myself to sit in it, albeit slouched, I let out a breath of exhaustion then removed my helmet.

"I should not have stood for so long," I whined. Clara merely shook her head in amusement before removing her own helmet and rummaging through our snack supply.

"Hey, did you by any chance give him some of our Dr. Pepper?"

"He was hungry, and a guest. I was being nice by giving him something to eat. Or would you have preferred I let him go hungry and we lose some of his trust?"

"We really wouldn't lose the guys trust over something as small as that, would we?" I shrugged in response, not knowing the answer.

"If there is one thing my dad has told me about men that I have no doubts has to be true, it is that a mans food is practically his life and very few are willing to give it up. Besides he may have thought me selfish, and I don't want him thinking that." She nodded in agreement before she pulled out a soda, a Snickers, and some Sun Chips before typing a command into the computer to tell it to retract the mini fridge. We sat there for a few minutes just enjoying each others company before getting board and logging onto Opto-sorry, Donnavon's server. Let me start over so I don't sound like an idiot. We were enjoying each others company and after a while got board so we logged onto Opt-Damn it I mean Donnavon! We got board and logged onto Opto-fuck! I just did it again! Okay calm down. I'll just say it like this. We got board, logged onto a certain Minecraft server made by 'he who shall not be named because I don't want a hernia from trying to get his god damn name right,' and began playing. After a couple of hours of playtime went by we eventually got board a second time and decided to go out shopping or something. To be honest I was quite surprised that we had yet to get any calls in. But, just to be safe I left my com link connected with the bases computer system in case a really bad call came in. Of course I had long since modified my helmet to be able to collapse into a compact form to allow for easier transport, even without having a purse or bag of some kind. It also allowed for easier concealment so nobody would find out what my secret identity was by accident.

We made our way to the local mall and walked around just window shopping, that is until I saw this really lovely knife. I mean it was really gorgeous! Mostly red in color, a green so dark it was practically black as a secondary color, a dragon etched into the sides, and a polished black blade with a silver edge. It was like I died and went to heaven. Then I noticed 'he who shall not be named' buying the exact same knife I was ogling! Looks like we have similar tastes when it comes to bladed weapons. I didn't want to seem like a creepy stalker, since I was staring at him through a window, with stuff in front of said window that would help to obscure me from view, in a mall. However before I could turn away he turned towards the window and smiled at me before waving. I could feel my cheeks flush as I turned my head down and waved back. After he was finished with his transaction he exited the small store and made his way out to us.

"If you are trying to creep me out you gotta know that you will have to try harder," he said as he looked at us with a smile and a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Well I didn't exactly know that you were in there until I saw you at the counter. I was busy ogling the dragon knife to immediately realize it." He made a face that told me he agreed with what I said.

"So what brings you two here?" He questioned us out of curiosity.

"Well if you must know," Clara began, "we were bored out of our fucking minds." Again he showed his agreement with that statement, this time by nodding his head yes.

"Judging by the way in which you just nodded I assume it was a similar predicament for you that led yourself to this mall?" I asked him.

"There was also the fact that, as you know or should have already guessed by now, I recently moved here (AN: Not for real, just in story.) and I do not know the layout of this place very well. So I wanted to get to know the main shopping area of the town I was going to be living in for a while."

"You do know that you could have asked us right?" Clara.

"Yeah, but I wanted to do it by myself so I can memorize the layout without much distraction."

"Oh, so we're distractions now?" I may have crossed my arms and looked pissed, but in all actuality I was just fuck'n with the guy. Unfortunately he didn't seem to catch the playfulness on my face like Clara had, who immediately began to snicker.

"Oh no, no, no, no. I don't think your distractions. But you are capable of distracting plenty of people-uh I mean I just wanted to find my own way because I am stubborn and hard headed and I didn't want inconvenience such a lovely person..." about that time we both realized what was said and he did what could only be described as a slow motion face palm as I blushed at his compliment. He then said, "I am going to go now," before promptly turning around and walking as fast as he could away from us, his face no doubt red with embarassment. I turned to Clara to see that she was trying so hard not to laugh that her face was red, she was holding her stomach in pain, and she was doubling over from the lack of air entering her lungs. Eventually she couldn't take it anymore and began to laugh, softly at first, but eventually grew in volume too the point where passersby stared at her strangely as she lay there on the floor struggling for air in-between fits of laughter. Unfortunately this only made me blush harder as I knew she heard what the dirty blonde had said before his abrupt departure.

She eventually stopped laughing and stood up off the ground, only to be met with and embarrassed face, and what Solus had told me was quite the impressive glare. The glare however, did not work as it only made her continue laughing.

"It's not funny!"

"It's hysterical!"

"No it isn't! It is embarrassing and I wish that never happened!"

"Oh don't fool yourself chica, you know you liked the compliment," by this time she had finally stopped that infernal laughing and was now giggling. Like a madman but she still stopped laughing. While I could not deny that I had quite enjoyed the compliment, I just wished that my best friend was not there to here him say that. It could have saved us both some embarassment.

"Shut up," was my simple reply.

"I don't hear you denying it~" she sing songed.

"Well you won't hear me admitting to it either. Looks like your shit out of luck with only an unproven theory as your evidence." Her response was a lop-sided smile and a less-than sane look in her eye. We decided that since we were already here, might as well get a bite to eat. Auntie Ann's Pretzles-mmmm. Anyway we left shortly after, finding nothing else better to do and had to dodge the sight of the Bitch Pack as we left seeing as they were coming in just as we were going out. I may have a far greater patience now than I used to, but that doesn't mean that the well can't be run dry. If that happened then I may end up doing something that they would regret. You heard me them, not us. We would be happy parading around town with their heads held high into the air, attached to nothing but pikes. However things weren't meant to last as my 'day off' soon became a 'day on.'

"_Midnight Prime, this is Medical Officer Ratchet. Please Respond._"

"Oh great."

"What's wrong?"

"I need to find a place to talk privately without people thinking I'm insane." She looked at me strangely before realization struck her face.

"It's your com-link isn't it?" She whispered.

"_Midnight Prime come in, this is Medical Officer Ratchet do you read me?_" I nodded to her before we ducked into a nearby alleyway so I could answer it.

"This is Midnight Prime, sorry I didn't answer at first. I'm kind of in public right now so I had to hide."

"_It is quite alright. I was wondering if your friend, Zodiac if I remember rightly, has access to her flash drive?_"

"That she does if we head home now and pick it up."

"What's he asking?"

"If you have access to your thumb drive."

"_What?_"

"Sorry, talking to Zo. We'll drop by her house and pick up her flash drive first. Once we have it and are a considerable distance away from her house, as to avoid unwanted stares and such, we will contact you for pick up."

"Oh come on! I don't want to go through that damn portal again, that shit made me sick!"

"Oh calm down Zo it isn't that bad."

"Only because you're a techno-organic! It doesn't effect Ratchet because he's a living machine, he has no guts to spew!" Around this time I changed my hand into its metal from and threatened to smack her upside the head if she didn't stop complaining.

"We will be there soon Ratchet. Just give us some time."

"_I will be waiting for your call._" With that I hung up and told Clara to follow me. Luckily we didn't have to sneak anything past her parents, seeing as they were at work so we just grabbed the thumb drive and made our way to the base so Clara could go get her armor. I made the call to Ratchet and soon we found ourselves at the base that held the Cybertronian medic within. We still got that queasy feeling when we went through so Clara had to take a few minutes to calm down before handing over the thumb drive. Within minutes the old medic had the information downloaded and ready for transport. As we left to our base Ratchet made sure to grab some ingredients to not only make a batch or two of Syn-then for us but to also show me how to do it. He even promised to teach me more about their science!

After some time of him teaching me how to do things we had eventually made four cubes of Syn-then. To be honest it was pretty cool. We even spent some time teaching Laura how to play Minecraft despite her disputes of not wanting to do it. In the end I think we got her addicted to the game. Once we did that we told them about Draco knowing where the base is, just not what he is capable of. They took it surprisingly well. I thought for sure Ratchet was going to blow a fuse or something along those lines. However they did ask if he knew who they were. We told them Draco knows of them just not who they are. When we told them my reasoning they seemed even more impressed. All in all it was a fairly uneventful day.

That is until the tank showed up. Some ass hole terrorists wanted to blow up Crystal City because it was my hometown. They still don't know who I am, which is a major relief, but they did know where Midnight Prime lives. So Clara, or should I say Zodiac, and I hightailed it to the town square. We flew most of the way there before dropping down to the city streets and running the rest of the way. When we busted in to take them down we wanted them to be surprised.

We hid in a nearby alleyway to scope out the situation. Yes they definitely had a tank. It looked to be some kind of prototype seeing as it was firing rounds of extremely destructive plasma at random buildings. Looking passed the tank I noticed Draco in the alleyway across from ours. He signalled us to get on the private channel and we complied.

"_Here's what we're going to do. Since I am the silent one you two need to distract that tank. I'll sneak up behind it and get inside. After I've done that I'm going to knock them out and drag their sorry asses across the pavement._"

"Wait, why do we have to be the distraction?" Zodiac asked me as I got my weapons ready.

"Because Zo, we have heavier fire power than he does as well as thicker armour. If he were to try to go toe to toe with that behemoth it could take him down with very little problems. You and I on the other hand have weapons that were meant to melt armour. If we go up against it we could do some serious damage."

"_Midnight's correct. Since your armour is thicker than mine and most likely created to stand up to the same fire power that you have just in case your weapons were stolen, you would have an easier time taking it on. Now, on my mark you two go in... Mark!_" With the signal given Zodiac and I bolted towards the tank at impressive speeds and began firing our weapons at it. The massive turret turned towards us and fired. Leaping out of the way just before getting hit I activated my other gun and began a barrage of energon blasts that seemed to be very effective against the tank if the large, red hot holes I left in the chassis was any indication. Of course that was just the outer layer of armor. There seemed to be more underneath.

About that time a person crawled up unto the top of the tank and began to operate the smaller machine gun turret. I jumped out of the way a second time as numerous rounds of superheated plasma flew my way. Noticing Zodiac on the other side of the tank, still dodging the higher caliber rounds, I began to see their plan. They were trying to keep us split apart from each other so we couldn't cause as much damage as I had no doubts we would be able to cause together. This was Zodiacs first time in an actual battle, so she was essentially a wild card. They had no idea what she could do so their best option was to keep her from doing it. I was also busy trying to dodge the somewhat small arms fire.

"Zodiac let's play a little game!"

"Which one!" She called back.

"How hard will it be to hit the flying hero's!" With that we both took to the sky. It was far easier to dodge their attacks up here, seeing as there was far more room to maneuver. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Draco sneaking up on them from their blind spot. He needed more time to get to that tank so we constantly flew around making it seem as if we didn't have yet another partner. We even flew in his direction numerous times to throw them off of what we were doing. Of course he would be hiding behind rubble whenever we went that way but they didn't know that.

The battle was becoming far to prolonged for my taste, seeing as the longer the battle was the more property was destroyed. Zodiac and I could only do so much and our occasional attacks were not working. We could fit in a shot or two every once in a while but it was hardly doing anything and Zo was a horrible shot because she had very little training in the way of her very large, very heavy weapon, so only some of her shots hit their mark.

"Draco you better hurry it the hell up! Zodiac and I can only do so much and she is starting to slow down!" I yelled over the private channel.

"_Hold your horses! It's difficult enough to get close to the damn thing with random blasts of plasma headed my way but it's even more difficult with someone yelling in your ear!_" I shut my mouth after that. However a minute or so later the turret of the tank aimed away from us and at a random chunk of rubble. Or was it random? Seconds before the blast went off Draco jumped from his hiding place and took to the sky.

"Damn!" He yelled as the machine gunner nearly took his head off with his own barrage.

"How the hell did they know you were there!?" Zodiac yelled in frustration as she dodged yet another bolt of plasma curtesy of the main cannon.

"How they hell should I know?"

"Maybe they have a motion tracking system that only activates if somebody comes within a certain radius?" I suggested as I popped a few more shots at the tank before dodging another barrage a plasma rounds. The near constant sound of guns firing told me that Draco was now in on the action as well. I spared a quick glance his way and saw him using one of the mini-guns near continuously to try and blast his way through their armor. So far we were unable to do a damn thing against them besides riddle the mobile cannon with bullet holes. But I guess enough was enough. Eventually Draco had gone to his tolerance limit for tanks blowing every thing to hell, so he deactivated his mini-guns and grabbed the hits of both swords attached to his waste.

He drew both swords from their housings with a mighty ringing sound, both weapons unfurling like the wings of the creature they were based off of (a dragon) and he began to sprint towards the behemoth. The people within decided this was not a very good thing and aimed the main turret at him as he was defending against a hail of machine gun fire. I noticed that Draco would be unable to dodge in time and immediately ran to his side and roughly tackled him to the ground just as the main turret went off. Seconds later we had both taken to the sky once more, and not to soon. The second we had lifted off the ground had erupted into an explosion curtesy of you-know-who. The three of us managed to pull off some higher tiered flying maneuvers and regrouped in a small decimated store. The tank and the assailants within were now patrolling around the small area we had managed to stick to, looking for us. We needed a strategy. We couldn't use the Cyber Caliber because of the simple fact that I need time to concentrate, and an essential war zone was not the place. Even if Draco and Zo had tried to stall for time I would be unable to accomplish the necessary feet power.

Zo was a mediocre swords woman at best and we still had no idea what Draco's second unknown weapon was capable of. Sure I still had my swords but they were useless in a ranged battle against a tank. We needed something with enough strength to break that turret... wait.

"Draco, how strong will you be if you were to use 'the Beasts' power?"

"...I would be able to lift at least 80-90 times my own weight."

"Perfect, when I give the signal you dash out of here as fast as you can. I don't care if you have to use your jet packs engines to help accomplish this feet. Your strength alone should be able to break that cannon."

"And if he manages to get to it before the cannon can move then he has a fighting chance!" Zodiac exclaimed in realization.

"It might work, but I need to gage for reaction time."

"Really? You haven't figured that part out yet?"

"Hey, it blew up eight blocks before it stopped here. I was more worried about trying to tear the damn thing to pieces then I was about knowing what the drivers reaction time was."

"Touché."

"Alright Zo, let's do this," I said as we snuck out of the building and to another one. We then came charging out firing our weapons madly at the metal monster. Looks like we successfully got its attention. As we ran around the tank, drawing its fire, I noticed Draco paying astute attention. He was counting the seconds from the time I drew its attention away from Zo to when the turret finally aimed towards me and fired. As was I. The time was too short between shots and the gun man on the smaller turret was far faster than the main turret. There was only about a second or two between my landing to its targeting me and firing. He was on his own and we all knew it.

Then like lighting to a rod he bolted from his hiding spot with his jet pack active, wings spread wide. The second he entered its motion tracking range it began to turn. However he was far quicker. With his right hand he grabbed a hold of the barrel and yanked it from the housing, his left was occupied with holding the gun man by his throat. Now that we no longer had to deal with the tank we were finally able to get close. Zodiac and I entered the machine and knocked out the inhabitants before pulling them out and having Draco secure them all with the tank barrel he still held in his hand. He made sure to make it tight enough so none of them could twitch without feeling constricted, let alone being able to wiggle themselves free. Once this was over we were swamped by reporters and people who had been in the upper floors of the higher buildings. By the time this had happened I managed to check the time. We had spent the better part of three hours fighting the tank.

We spent the next hour signing autographs and answering questions from not only the reporters and citizens but the police as well. I had one rookie ask me if it was really necessary to drag the fight out for so long. My response?

"Dude, if you had less than two seconds to move before a tanks plasma turret targeted you and fired and even less time before the guy on the chain gun turret sent his next volley at you, would you care about how quickly you got that fight done?"

"Then you should have snuck up on it."

"What the hell did you think we tried first? Did you think that we just sat back and watched Draco stroke his dick? The fucking thing had a motion sensing proximity radar! There was no sneaking up on it!"

"...Then why didn't you just do the end move first?"

"Uggh! Somebody escort this guy away from me before I strangle him to death!"

"Hold on," he told the two older officers who came over to get him, "You didn't answer my last question!"

"Because it is a dumb ass question! We didn't do that first because it's kind of hard to think when you have thousands of plasma bullets constantly being fired at you! And its even harder to evade when there are two other people in the fight that can fly and you are restricted to such a small flight space!"

"Well then maybe you should have retreated sooner so you cou-" *_**BAMB!**_* For those who didn't understand, I punched him hard enough to send him flying back about 18 ft.

"Should have listened to her dumbass!" Draco, Zodiac, and surprisingly the chief of police all yelled at the same time. The two senior officers from earlier went over and picked the poor bastard up off of the ground. He was out could with a big red mark on his face in the shape of my fist that was already starting to bruise.

"Poor kid should have gotten the hint," the chief said as he walked up to me. You would have thought that I would know his name by now.

"Sorry chief, I didn't mean to hit him that hard."

"If you ask me he had it coming to him. All of the answers to those stupid questions could have been answered by a three year old!"

"Thanks Captain..."

'Leonard Bishop,' Optimus reminded me. I sent him a quick mental thank you in response.

"...Bishop, it is nice to know that I have your sentiment."

"Anytime it's needed and depending on the situation it is yours." I sent him a quick smile, reflected by my helmets digital eyes, and walked over to my fellow 'vigilantes.' We spoke a bit before we went our respective ways, as in Draco went home and we went to the base. Clara dropped off her armor before we began our short treck home. There wasn't much talking between the two of us seeing as we were both exhausted. Once we made it to the fork in the path that lead to our respective houses we split up. The second I hit the door I went straight to the shower. When that was done there was only one thing I could think to do. For once I said fuck it to food and went straight to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Alexis wake up!" Great mom's calling for me.

"What!" I called back grogally.

"Get ready it's almost time to go!" Now this is new.

"Go where?"

"You forgot?!" The sounds of feet clomping against the stairs could be heard before my bedroom door opened moments later. Standing in my door was my mom, a nurse in the local hospital, who was Caucasian with brunette hair and emerald green eyes. She was only slightly taller than me and was currently dressed in a black glittery turtleneck (in the summer?!), black dress pants, and black high heels.

"You going emo or somethin'?" I asked her.

"Very funny, now get around or we're going to be late."

"For what?!" I whined.

"The family reunion! Now get ready we'll meet you in the car."

"Ugh!" I exclaimed as I flopped back into my pillow.

'Was that really necessary?' Optimus asked me.

'Yes I believe it was. Unlike Clara my mom and dad don't know about the changes I've recently gone through or my alternate persona. So as far as they know I'm still 'Lexi.' I'll gradually introduce them to the 'new' me over time, but right now I need to act like I normally would.' I felt him nod in acknowledgement to my reasoning before once more retreating into my mind. He understood that had my parents seen the drastic change in my personality they would have immediately assumed something was wrong and taken action. So with me gradually feeding them how I've recently acted while around Clara and Draco they will slowly but surely get used to my change until it's finally received as normal for them.

Once my inner conversation with Optimus was complete I got out of bed and put on a what could be considered my normal clothing. Tank top, pants, tennis shoes. I was just about to leave my room when I realized something. I haven't really seen my parents in days because they were usually at work by the time I woke up, which means they had no idea about my new 'birthmark.' I silently cursed before I began to run towards the back door.

"I forgot something important at Clara's I'll be back in a bit!" I called as I headed out knowing that my parents weren't completely done getting ready either seeing as I heard them still shuffling about downstairs.

"Hurry back!" My mothers exasperated voice yelled. I returned a quick okay before running full out sprint towards the base.

'What are you doing?' Solus asked me as I quickly made my way to the main door.

'Mom and dad have no idea about the insignia. If they see it on me they may think that I got a tattoo!'

'What's so bad about a tattoo? I've heard you contemplating on getting one when your older plenty of times.'

'Exactly, when I'm older and have moved out of the house! If they see the Autobot insignia now, while I'm still a minor who needs parental consent before a tattoo can be placed on them, in which I did not have for something that isn't even a tattoo in the first place, they're going to be furious!'

'Oh... So what's when the plan?'

'I go to the base and use the Forge to craft a necklace that can easily hide my mark.'

'But it's already hidden from view.'

'Not enough! When a mother is suspicious or worried they can do better investigative work than the FBI! That's why I need something to hide the mark more! Good thing the last time I was in the mall I saw a necklace with an Autobot insignia on it because of my 'alternate persona.''

'Nice, that way you can say you bought the necklace the last time you were at the mall!'

'Bingo.' By now I had made my way to the main entrance and had input the code. When the door opened I dashed down the winding hall and toward the forge. I grabbed a small piece of titanium from the scrap bin and the Forge of Solus Prime off the wall before doing a few gentle taps with the hammer. Once that was done I now had a unique necklace with the Autobot insignia on it. It was all silver in color and the chain was long, flat, and just the right size to fit perfectly around my neck. The insignia could still dangle but the loop it was attached to on the chain was locked in place. The insignia itself was silver with a midnight blue trim. Quickly fitting it around my neck I placed the Forge back on its stand and high tailed it back home.

Once done getting ready my family and I finally made our way to the city park. There we're a lot of people here, at least three more families. I could barely tell who went to which family if it weren't for the fact that we naturally segregated ourselves. There were even some people within my own family that I couldn't even recognise. Of course this would no longer be the case as my now partly cybernetic brain began creating 'files' full of what little information I knew of them... 'I should have fucking done this with the police chief!' In the back of my mind I could hear Solus and the other Primes laughing their asses off, although it was mostly Solus. On the outside I was completely calm, with the only indication of my slight annoyance being a small twitch of my left eyebrow.

"Lexi!" At the call of my name I turned and was immediately glomped by someone. Of course this threw the both of us to the ground. Looking down to the culprit, of which was smiling at me like a Cheshire Cat, I knew exactly who it was.

"Crystal! Oh my god I haven't seen you since the last reunion!" I said as I hugged her back, taking care to mind my strength so I wouldn't accidentally kill her. Although the hug I gave her was apparently stronger than I had anticipated.

"You're squeezing me a bit too tight!"

"Sorry!" After letting go we both got back onto our feet, smiling like a couple of lunatics.

"Wow, your a lot stronger than I remember you to be," she commented as I briefly took her appearance. Brunette, green eyes, slightly pale caucasian skin, one or two inches shorter than me. Yep, definitely Crystal. This of course was just going into my 'data base' so I had something on her just in case anything happened to her in the future or she suddenly changed her style. I doubted the ladder option would happen but there still was a possibility.

"Yeah I do tend to do a lot of cave diving. There is just something about exploring those old caves that... I don't know. It just clicks." This was of course acting as a way to hide my recent changes, although it was partly true and I had long since tracked down the reason as to why I loved cave diving so much. It was for the adrenalin rush, the sense of danger, the sense of adventure. Exploring places that have had little to no explorers or visitors of any race or species of any kind for possibly hundreds of years, going places that you have never been to before, it was exciting. That was also why I loved to fly around in my armor, it gave me another way to explore the unexplored.

"Well you'll never catch me going into deep dark holes where if you get badly hurt your screwed." This effectively broke me out of my musings and got me active in the conversation once again.

"Come on Crys, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Above the sea level."

"But if I recall crystals are mineral constructs created by immense pressure and heat blow the surface of the earth and are sometimes found in caves. Both of which are below the sea level."

"Wow, your right."

"..."

"..."

"I'm still not getting you to go cave diving with me."

"Nope." We shared a short giggle before going on to speak about a few other things. Of course one of these many topics was about boys. We're teenage girls, what the hell do you expect was going to happen?

"Oh man I haven't had a conversation like this with you in a long time."

"That's mainly because my family and I live in Missouri now."

"Hmm, Missouri. I actually know a person who's from Missouri."

"Oh really, is this person, a guy?"

"Yeah, he was my favorite YouTuber despite not having very many videos or subscribers."

"Wait, your favorite YouTuber was someone who was basically a nobody? How many subscribers?"

"Counting me, seven."

"Why was he your favorite again?"

"I guess it was because he said a lot of stupid things? Who knows I can't really remember. Talking to the guy personally is better then watching him talk at a camera or a mic."

"True, but how did you find him in the first place?"

"Got bored one day and decided I wanted to watch people rant about something. So I typed 'rant' into the search bar and browsed through the pages. When I came across one of his videos I clicked on it and watched it. I don't know why but something just compelled me to do it."

"...it's because he's cute isn't it?"

"...maybe a little?" I asked, uncertain if I even believed the answer, with a sheepish smile.

"Wow girl, it's sad when even you have no idea."

"No idea about what?" At this she face palmed. I wasn't too entirely sure but I swear I felt the primes face palm as well. What was I supposedly clueless towards?

"Nevermind, hey the foods been put out maybe we should go get something to eat?" She suggested. I wandered what the sudden shift in topic was about but put that matter to the side for now, I was kind of hungry since I didn't get a chance to eat anything before we left the house. The 'festivities' lasted for at least two more hours with people occasionally complimenting me on my necklace and what not before things started to wind down. However just as quickly as it 'wound down' it got just as exciting. And by exciting I mean gun shots. They weren't that close to us yet, but the fact that they were even close at all was cause for alarm. When the first few shots rang out my family, as well as the others decided it was time to start packing things up with haste.

Looking around I saw that most of the cars were already full with whatever each person brought, be it food, lawn chairs, toys, almost nothing was left behind. Small children were quickly put into vehicles and buckled in, the small number who actually seemed to know what was happening were crying as their parents hurried to get them to the cars. I had spent this entire time helping other people get things packed away, my enhanced muscles allowing me to carry more with higher speed. The problem was I had also kept my ear to the air, and what I heard was troubling. By the time most of these people had finished packing everything away the fire fight would have already reached us.

I took this as a motivator to get the vehicles with children passengers packed first. Many people followed my lead and soon enough the first few cars were leaving. After the last car with children left we started on the other cars. As I was carrying a set of casserole dishes to a van I noticed Crystal off to the side. She was having a panick attack and her parents were having problems calming her down. I set the dishes in the owners car and went to assist.

"Crystal we need you to calm down," her father said.

"Crystal if you don't calm down you'll make things worse!" Her mother doing a terrible job, which in turn caused her panick attack to increase.

"Hey Crystal, look at me!" She hesitantly looked me in the eyes, "Panicking will get you nowhere. If you need to cry find time to do it later. The only thing your doing at the moment is making it difficult to get everyone out of here before whoever is out there gets to us. So I need you to take a few deep breaths. Now follow with me, in," she inhaled deeply, "out," she exhaled, "good now again. In and out, in and out. You calm?" A nod of head. "Are you sure?" Another nod. "Good, now I need you to muster up whatever courage you have and help get your vehicle packed, can you do that for me?"

"I- I don't think I can!"

"If you think you can't then you won't. What I need you to do is ignore that part of you that is telling you this. You need to do this. There is no 'I cant's' or 'I thinks' there is just 'I will do this.' Do you understand?" She nodded, "Good, now will you help us?" She once again nodded, but this time she stood up and dried her tears before running over to the nearest old person and helping them to their car. I smiled in accomplishment before another round of gun fire went off. Now was not the time to bathe myself in my achievements. By now we had managed to get all of the old people out and the rest of the cars packed. That is until I heard frantic barking. Some moron had left their dog tied to one of the tables! Crystal was already over there struggling with the knot. Deciding it was a good idea to help her I quickly sprinted over. I hate how I needed to suppress my abilities right now.

By the time I had managed to get there she had freed the little black pomeranian, but by the time she had picked up the dog stood she noticed a man standing at least 15 yards away raising his assault rifle to shoot her. She frose, she was scared. 'To hell with this!' I thought as I pushed a small amount of power into my legs and tackled Crystal to the ground just as I heard the hammer slam into the firing pin. Remember those moments in action films where time seems to slow down around the person being shot at or doing the shooting? Well I can officially say that that myth has been proven true. The second I heard the 'bang' of the gunpowder igniting time really did seem to slow. The position we were in right now would have gotten Crystal shot, so I maneuvered us in such a way where I would take the bullet to my left shoulder. Those few seconds of wating for the impact were the longest in my life. We were just inches before meeting the ground when I heard a 'pinging' sound, like metal striking metal before I felt the bullet graze my shoulder just enough to cause a small burn. I knew I hadn't activated my armour at all because _A_. I wouldn't have felt the bullet burn my shoulder and _B_. I would have heard the tell tale signs of transformation.

Time seemed to return to normal the second Crystal and I met the floor and I looked up in time to see a familiar brown armour dash forwards and swing one of its signature brown, wing shaped, swords at the gun man's head. The broad side of the sword made contact hard enough to render him unconscious. The swordsman turned to the two of us and tilted his head in question.

"We're fine, you can take the other guys out."

"Not until the two of you have gotten to safety." The familiar distorted voice all but commanded.

"We'll be fine! Your main priority should be disarming and taking down those gunman!" I yelled as he deflected some gun fire with his swords.

"My main priority is protecting the people."

"Which you can do better if you take out those gunman first!"

"I can't leave you two unguarded."

"We'll be fine, I can get us out of here without your help!"

"What if a stray bullet were to hit you or they were to take you as hostages?"

"Listen to me damn it!"

"I will not allow another person to die on my watch when I knew for damn sure I could have done something about it!" Flashbacks of the first time Draco and I worked together ran through my mind. Sneaking into the store, taking out the terrorist security personnel, evacuating the hostages, one of the terrorists getting free, then my blood stained visor. Was I really trying to force him into a situation where that could have happened again? I took a quick look at my surroundings. My parents and Crystals were hiding behind a car, the only cover for at least 7 yards in every direction. There was no way Crystal and I would have been able to make it there before we were riddled with bullets or I was forced to activate my armour. 'Oh my god, I could have gotten Crystal killed.' I thought as the realization sunk in. I really just forced Draco into a corner. I guess with my family in danger I just wasn't thinking clearly. What a great Prime I turned out to be.

"Okay, we'll do it your way." He nodded to me to show he heard what I said over the constant gun fire and 'pinging' sounds of him deflecting bullets with his swords and armour.

"Zodiac, could really use some assistance from you and Midnight!" He yelled over his Comm. By now we were slowly moving towards the car Crystal's and my parents were hiding behind. I sent a small surge of power to my ears so I could hear Clara's reply to Draco's request.

"Sorry but Midnight was drug off somewhere by her parents. She can't exactly just ditch them without arousing a lot of suspicion. You'll just have to make due with me for now."

"Well I guess a novice is better than nothing."

"Hey asshole I heard that!"

"You were supposed to. When this is all said and done Midnight and I are going to give you some fighting lessons." As if on que I heard the all to familiar sounds of jet pack engines before Zodiac flew into view and shot off a small barrage at the group of hostiles with her Buster Sabre. They quickly jumped behind trees and small mounds of dirt as she shot at them allowing our small little party of three to make a mad dash for the cars. Of course I was practically dragging Crystal behind me and Draco was at the back acting as a shield. About 15 feet later we stopped and began another slow approach towards the car after we heard more bullets 'ping' off of Draco's armour. Zodiac came back around and hovered in place above us, laying down a near constant stream of blaster fire to keep their attention and force them to stay behind cover.

"Thank god your alright!" My mother yelled as we were hugged by our respective parents.

"I'll cover you as you make your way to your vehicles," Draco said getting our attention, "As soon as your in your cars slam on the gas and get out of this area as quickly as possible. Do not slow down for anything. If you are stopped by police inform them of your previous location." The adults nodded in confirmation and Draco returned it as a way to acknowledge their own confirmation before standing and activating his arm mounted mini-guns. The second we heard his volley start my parents and I ran for our car as Crystal and her parents got into theirs. As soon as dad turned the ignition he put the truck in gear and slammed on the gas. Our truck and their small sedan fled the scene of the fire fight as fast as possible. As instructed we did not slow down until we were a safe distance away.

"What were you thinking!" Mom suddenly yelled.

"What-"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about so don't even go there. You were shot!"

"It only grazed me!"

"That still counts as getting shot!"

"There's only a small burn, and what do you prefer to have happened? Would you rather I let Crystal die?!"

"She would have ducked-"

"She froze in fear mom!" She quieted. "You weren't close enough to see her muscles tense and hear her breath hitch! I watched her save that dog but that was as far as her courage had let her go. As soon as she saw the gun she panicked and froze. My intervention allowed her life to be spared, hell even the dog was able to run off. Mom I saved her life." The rest of the ride home was quiet. I took this time to enter the Matrix and convene with the other Primes.

"Well done Midnight, you performed quite admirably today," Optimus said as I walked up to him.

"Then how come I feel as if I failed as a Prime?"

"You saved your cousins life and many others, that is all that matters."

"What about making decisions that could have cost the life of my cousin, what about that?"

"Remember Midnight," Prima began, "You are still new to this, there are bound to be problems that you have yet to face and be ironed out. As a Prime and leader you still have much to learn. As a warrior you must learn when it is best to listen to your instincts and when you must listen to your mind."

"Over all you did great little sister," Solus complimented, "Just be glad the only casualty was your pride." I nodded in exceptance before leaving the Matrix and sat quietly for the rest of the ride home. Before I went to bed however my mom approached me with a very, interesting choice of words.

"Alexis seeing as you seemed to have gained a knack for dangerous situations, I have decided to call your uncle and see if you can spend the day with him."

"Uncle Terry at the metal processing plant?"

"No sweety, Uncle Robert on the force."

"Seriously?! Your'e going to see if you can get me a ride along?"

"It will definitely show you how dangerous situations like these can be, even for the simplest of calls." 'Yeah, like I don't already know about that,' I thought sarcastically.

"Well whatever the situation I'll be ready for it," I declared with a hand over my heart. The incident with that womans death, 'Tabitha Grey,' I mentally reminded myself having looked her up as a reminder of my first major mistake, had really driven the point home. No matter the situation I needed to be ready for anything. I could see the worry in my mothers eyes, but the small smile on her face because of my declaration told me just as much. She saw what I could be capable of today and knew I would follow my declaration through. So with my statement made we all made our way to bed.


End file.
